The Fire in Their Eyes
by Freddo
Summary: In the summer of 2208, Earth is being plagued by terrorist attacks to sap her morale...these include murder, torture, and rape...can these crimes be solved? Includes some crossover with my alternate Battle of the Planets universe. STORY NOW COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

**THE FIRE IN THEIR EYES**

**A VERY Dark Star Blazers/Battle of the Planets crossover fanfic (Rating: Heavy R/ NC-17very explicit): THIS TALE IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!**

**PART ONE: A REIGN OF TERROR BEGINS**

**By Frederick P. "Freddo" Kopetz**

**Thanks to "Yuki Wildstar" and Gail Kopetz for the inspiration (and Gail says "blame me for reading one too many Bertice Small Bodice-Ripper novels and feeding Freddo weird and naughty ideas…")**

* * *

**I. PRELUDE**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Dr. Kei Stuart's Office**

**Thursday July 21, 2208**

**1330 Hours**

Nova Wildstar was having one of the most contented…and peaceful visits to the pediatrician she had ever had in her life, or the young lives of her babies, Alex and Ariel Wildstar.

Alex and Ariel had been crying just a little while ago, because they had just received shots from the young blonde pediatrician, who had renewed her relationship with Doctor Sane….She had also told Nova (while Derek had been in the restroom) that she and Doctor Sane had also been intimate several times in the past few months…the most recent time being in a nice forest in the park around Heroes' Hill. They had spoken of this while little Alex and Ariel were being stripped of their minimal summer clothes for their exams…they had come here wearing nothing but their training pants and little sunsuits that left most of their little bodies bare to the very hot summer sun thanks to the abnormal acivity in the Sun. Today, the expected highs would be between 125 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat, combined with the high humidity on Great Island this time of year, made people run to the beaches, lakes, and rivers of the region for relief.

Right now, Nova was comforting her two naked children in her lap as she herself sat on the examining table with them, giving them her milk, breasts, and love as the pediatrician watched them feed and checked Nova's breasts every now and then. Nova herself was rather easy to check at the moment; because of the heat, she had worn nothing but a favorite pink romper set of hers and matching pink sandals…with those garments off, Nova herself was also nude. She smiled at Derek as he tenderly stroked her and the babies as they fed; letting his hands run over the soft skin of his children as well as over the soft, lightly tanned skin of their mother.

"This feels good," she whispered.

"I'm so happy," Derek replied as he kissed his wife's knee, letting a hand go gently up one of her thighs to her soft bottom. Nova blushed, giggled softly, and tried to slide away from him, as she whispered, "Sweetheart…not in front of the doctor, please!"

"And why not?" said Dr. Stuart. "By the way, the babies are fine. I gave them their ten-month series of shots today, and they are both developing quite normally. In fact, they're both a bit precocious…it's so cute that they are forming words already….and, Nova, you're potty-training them already?"

Nova said, "Yes. They still have some accidents, but they're easy to deal with since we've rolled up the rugs, and in the house we usually keep them stripped and not far from a potty chair, although I've begun to teach them how to pull up their pants afterwards," Nova said. "However, they love to pull off their pants and go naked a lot, the little scamps!" Nova laughed. "They said it itches to be dressed in this heat…and since it is a sticky heat, who can blame them?"

"DOCCIE!" yelled Ariel as she pulled away from Nova's breast and reached to Doctor Stuart to be played with. Doctor Stuart turned her around on her mother's bare thigh, and mother, father, and pediatrician smiled at her as she sat up with a big smile and followed Doctor Stuart's penlight with her big, sweet brown eyes under dark lashes that were beginning to look just like her mother's, complete with the small epicanthic fold in the corners of her eyes that her mother had due to her degree of Japanese ancestry, making her eyes look somewhat exotic.

"Her eyes are nice and alert," said Doctor Stuart as she mussed up Ariel's hair. She tickled her little bare chest, and then Nova and Derek smiled as Ariel grabbed her mother's knee….put her cute little bare bottom up in the air, and said, "_Poopie_!" with a grunt.

Before anyone could react, Ariel strained, and, sure enough, a nice and almost solid bit of baby poop came out of her, bounced against her mother's stomach, and then hit the paper-covered examining table with a subdued plop. Nova laughed and wiped off her own tummy and leg, and then she began to clean her squiggling daughter's little bottom as she gently kept the squealing baby bottoms-up on her knee. Nova then used another baby wipe to pick up the little ball of poop and place it in a bedpan that Dr. Stuart provided.

"And our little girl obliges by giving us a little sample to study," said the pediatrician as Nova climbed back up into Derek's lap again to be held, letting Ariel crawl down the examining table a little as Derek gave his wife's stomach an affectionate pat…and then, he made Nova squeal as he tickled the sole of his wife's bare foot.

"Derek! You're crazy!" Nova laughed. "Please save that for the car or something!"

"Where?" said Derek. "The back seat?"

Nova slapped her husband's leg and he went "ouch!" but he still steadied his son on his mother's lap as he still slurped away at Nova's right breast and then the young officer stroked Nova's cheek with a look that said, "Are you mad at me?" Nova shook her head and smooched her husband's hand.

"You two make me laugh," said Doctor Stuart. "But, for now, _stop_ it, kids!" Now, both young parents blushed as Dr. Stuart said, "You two happen to be one of the cutest, sweetest, most affectionate couples I've ever met in my practice. It's pretty obvious that you're bonded very deeply to both of your babies as well as to each other. You have a degree of intimacy with nursing that I see in only a few couples, but should see in everyone."

"Is there anything wrong with that?" Nova asked in a very soft voice.

"No," said Dr. Stuart. "And you two can consider yourselves very fortunate. Nova, due to a hormonal mix I don't see in a lot of women, you are still producing a fair amount of progesterone and estrogen. Now, I did your blood work along with Doctor Sane. It did drop, as is usual after having children, but it didn't drop as much as I have seen in a lot of other women. Also," added Doctor Stuart. "To be honest, I don't work with a lot of other patients who were apparently both taken to the brink of death and brought back from its brink by the effects of strange alien machines…"

Then, Ariel crawled back to her mother (who was hoping she could get dressed soon) and she ensured her mother's continued bareness for a bit by grabbing her left breast again and continuing to nurse. Nova said, "I know…Doctor Sane and the other doctors he's worked with have said that sitting on the Cosmo-DNA-twice-when it went off would have had quite an effect on what I've become now. I've been able to heal up rapidly because of the effects of that device upon my body. I take it you are saying that…my continued, deep affection towards Derek may be partially a side effect of sitting on that thing when it went off?"

"That might explain your relative happy lack of an estrogen _and_ a progesterone drop, Nova, but it does not quite fully explain it. You even said in one of your articles once that the most important sexual organ in our body is in fact our brain. Therefore, the fact that you love him and he loves you means quite a bit…"

Nova stretched and flexed her toes as she looked at Derek and a pleasant feeling ran through her as he kept on stroking her hip and her bottom. Ariel seemed to be finished, so Nova let her turn away from her breast. Derek helped her lift the baby over her shoulder with one hand as he rubbed Ariel's back and tenderly burped her. Then, they did the same with Alex a moment later. The young parents then worked together to tenderly dress their children.

Doctor Stuart said, "Nova, the close proximity of Commodore Wildstar and his bond to you and your bond to him make feeding those babies a very sweet experience, right?"

Both Derek and Nova nodded, both blushing like teenagers whose love nest has just been discovered. Doctor Stuart then said, "I know what you have confessed…we don't need to cover that ground again," said Doctor Stuart, knowing that the young couple had confessed that they often found each other cuddling or touching during Nova's nursing periods (especially when she nursed naked when she had the privacy to do so), and that this cuddling led to lovemaking in various degrees, when they had the privacy to do so. She knew Nova was on the mini-pill, and that, combined with the nursing, made the chance she would conceive during this period rather remote, although the possibility still existed.

"Yes, I sure know that…it's…normal, right?" Nova said.

"As long as you have the privacy, you two go right ahead and do whatever you want after you take care of your little ones," said Doctor Stuart as she sat on the examining table with them and swung her clog-clad feet back and forth under her knee-length skirt. Stuart was wearing a white lab coat, white shirt with tie, black skirt, and woven open-toed clogs. She looked professional yet comfortable…a look Nova herself would later adapt years later when she became a full MD herself. Stuart also added, "Given this global warming and these temperatures from that increased solar activity they have picked up…I think we're going to be back here dressing the same way in December…"

_Yes,_ thought Derek. _That is, that is if the rate of fusion inside the Sun doesn't increase as much as the scientists think it might…._ Derek Wildstar didn't know if Doctor Stuart knew that of all of the speculation in the scientific community as to what the Minor Sun Crisis (as the EDF was beginning to call it) might mean for Earth. It was being called the Minor Sun Crisis because the early projections that the Sun might begin to expand and begin burning itself out seemed to have been disproven so far as the Sun burned on, albeit with a few more solar prominences and sunspots than usual.

Derek finally did say, "One reason the _Argo_ is taking off again towards the end of the Summer," he said as he moved aside so that Nova could begin to get dressed, "is because we will probably be going to near the orbit of Mercury to investigate and scan the Sun as closely as possible. We'll probably be there for about two or three days…."

In the meantime, Alex squealed loudly next to his mother's leg as Nova finished re-diapering him and then began to zip her outfit shut, clothing her nakedness.

"awwwww," Derek said teasingly. "Covering up already?"

Nova gave him a playful slap on the thigh. "Derek you know I can't exactly walk down Federation Street naked, even though I know that, given your dirty mind, you'd probably get a kick out of it? I'm saving that for the beach in a while. Anyway, my surfboard is on top of our new car on its new roof rack, " Nova said, referring to her new 2209 Subaru NeoImpreza sedan in silver-grey. Derek shook his head, smiled, and kissed Nova.

"You guys sound so cute," said Stuart with a smile as Derek zipped Nova's pink outfit closed and then slipped her backless sandals onto her bare feet. Doctor Stuart smiled to herself as she also knew that another couple was undergoing something similar; if even more intense….namely, Deke Wakefield and the Princess Sasha Wakefield of Iscandar. She had recently seen Deke and Sasha (they saw her as well thanks to Doctor Sane's and Nova's recommendations) and, when observing an unclothed Sasha nursing little Star Wakefield…she also showed reactions similar to Nova's…and so did Deke Wakefield…even when not in physical proximity to his spouse. Stuart guessed that through the psychic bond, they could feel each other's arousal and feed off of it.

Stuart smiled at Nova and Derek as they dressed Alex and Ariel in their summer clothes; Alex was slipped into a little coverall sunsuit over his training pants, and Ariel was dressed in a little yellow sundress. Neither baby wore any shoes at all, and Stuart waved at them as they left in the parents' arms (Derek carried Ariel; Nova carried Alex) and the two babies waved back.

* * *

A few minutes later, Nova and Derek left Dr. Stuart's office, and they walked across a bit of a nearby park to get to the parking deck that held their car.

"It's gotten hotter," Derek said as he carried Alex. Nova nodded as she wiped her brow while carrying Ariel in front of her in the kangaroo carrier she wore. "Derek, look at the temperature on that bank…"

Derek did; the bank had a sign on it that indicated the temperature; it was 118 degrees Fahrenheit, and 47.77 degrees Celsius. "No wonder it feels that hot out," Derek said. "It _is_ that hot out."

"We need to be at the shore ASAP; at least there'll be a breeze," Nova said, adding to herself, _And when we get on the beach, I can strip down again and get in the water…_

A moment later, they heard some coughing. The young couple turned their heads and they saw another young couple running down a path in the park. It was a young man, out running with his girlfriend, stripped down to only a _fundoshi _(or Japanese loincloth) and sneakers, with sweat glistening off his bare chest and legs. His girlfriend, a young redhead, also wore only a _fundoshi_ on her sweaty, near-nude body and rafting sandals on her bare feet in the extreme heat. She was the one who was coughing as she threw up.

"Do you need some water?" Nova said as she pulled a glass bottle of purified water from her pack. The young running woman nodded and took Nova's water, drinking heavily, and even pouring some on her body as she stripped herself naked to cool off for a moment. "How far have you run?" Nova asked.

"About six kilometers," gasped the young redheaded woman. "Hiroshi and I are training for a race…this is the hottest it's ever been. Are those news stories true? Did something happen to the Sun? It's been so hot lately!"

"Well, they have been picking up more sunspots than usual," Derek said. "It's still being studied. I wouldn't run any more today if I were you two. I'd get back home or get to a body of water and just jump in. There's a small artificial lake about half a kilometer down that path that you can go swimming in."

"It's a good place to cool off," Nova added. "I often do work as a Reservist nurse at Central Hospital, and sometimes during this hot Spring and Summer, I've been spending lunch there with my babies in my lap, out of my uniform so I can nurse them, and I let my feet dangle in the water. Sometimes, if I meet my husband, I wade into the shallow end with the babies or go in deeper myself to swim."

"Good idea," said Hiroshi. "Sonja, let's go…they don't mind if you skinny-dip in that lake?"

"Of course not," Nova laughed. "Not since it's been this insanely hot, anyway. See you guys later…and take care. We're going to the ocean ourselves, probably to skinny-dip," Nova laughed. "Try to stay cool! Don't work too hard…"

* * *

A while later, they arrived at the beach.

Little Alex was grabbing for his mother's breasts as soon as Nova picked him up from his car seat, and as Nova picked him up, she noticed his training pants and little sunsuit were soaked. He looked at hs mother and said, "Sorry Mommy…no potty!"

"That's okay, dear," Nova said softly. She solved Alex's problem by quickly undressing him as Derek, per Nova's request, tenderly helped Nova out of her sandals and then all of the rest of her clothing for the beach after noticing on the car instrument panel (which had a temperature gauge) that it was now 121 degrees. Nova had no swimwear today. As a result, many of those on the beach (who were themselves bare) smiled as Nova walked down the beach naked about three minutes later. Nova held little Alex as he suckled at one of her breasts while playing with the other one as he cuddled skin-to-skin against her.

Mother and child were soon sitting on a beach towel as Nova yawned in the heat. "Derek, it must've gotten ten degrees hotter in the past few minutes. I feel like I'm going to fall asleep….or something…."

"I know," Derek said as he stripped himself of his boots and shirt. Ariel was pulling at her clothes, so Derek undressed his baby daughter next, and smiled as she screamed, "MOMMIE!" and began to crawl off Derek's lap to her mother's lap. A moment later, Nova was smiling and holding Ariel as she took her mother's other bare breast and also began to nurse. Nova got more smiles from onlookers. The young mother simply looked _adorable_ nursing her twins naked on the bright beach in the heat as she lay there kissing them, and stroking them as she lay there wiggling her toes.

"How are you feeling, Nova?" Derek asked as Nova sat up.

"Thirsty, but nice," Nova said sleepily as Derek got a bottle of water. Since Nova's hands were taken up with stroking her little ones, Derek gently fed Nova some water. Nova kissed his hand and then drank, and then she began to sigh pleasantly a moment later as Derek began to put sun oil on her naked back.

Alex and Ariel began to grow sleepy, even as Nova and Derek both began to caress them and put sunscreen on them while Derek worked on Nova. Finally, a few minutes later, Nova was lying on the beach towel with Alex and Ariel asleep beside her after they had been burped. She smiled softly as Derek looked around, saw no one nearby, and then tenderly oiled up her long bare legs from her toes up.

Finally, when Derek reached Nova's upper thighs, she moaned softly as he oiled her body there, smiling as he lay down against her, hiding her from the world for a moment as he kissed her…she kissed back, and then began to whisper, "ohhh…yess…love…" as, with the sight hidden from the world as he covered her with his body, Derek placed suntan oil very tenderly on his young wife's center, not just oiling her up, but gently pleasuring her with his right hand as he began to oil her breasts with the other hand.

Derek took quite a while to oil up his young wife, who shut her eyes and smiled as Derek gave her several gentle moments of pleasure. Derek loved the fact that his Nova was a very brave, intelligent, tender, sweet, witty, maternal…and sensual young woman. Nova returned her dear husband's attentions as she began to kiss him, urgently kissing him as she whispered, "Derek…please open your pants…I…I…..mmmmmmmmmm…"

"Nova?"

Nova's toes then curled with pleasure as she shivered in a gentle climax while Derek said, "Honey, too late now. I've got you fully oiled up now from head to toe. Can I give you a rain check untiil we get back in the house and that party we're having dies down? By the way, we're going to have some more guests over. Your current attire is fine for the beach…or home when it's just us," he said, smiling as he remembered they had skipped church last weekend because it had been horribly hot…and Nova, God love her, had kept cool with their two toddlers who were undergoing naked potty training by just going naked herself all weekend. "I would prefer you put something on for the party, though," Derek said with a smile. He still remembered the rather amusing sight of Nova up on a stepladder in their house painting the ceiling and remembered how cute she had looked moving around up on that ladder, without a care in the world about her bare bottom. The need to breastfeed her babies and the heat had combined to make Nova feel _very _comfortable in her skin this summer.

"Sure, love," Nova whispered as she wiped away happy tears while Derek cuddled against her. "I'll throw on my kimono top and a fundoshi. Like that?"

Derek nodded, kissing her. It was then that they heard others coming up.

Nova and Derek turned around to notice Diane Henson and Stephen Sandor coming up hand-in-hand. Sandor wore only a set of dark swim trunks he had gotten from somewhere. Diane, on the other hand, also went naked except for a pair of black platform sandals on her feet. "Hi, guys!" she said as she knelt down near the edge of the beach towel to play with little Alex (who had had his fill) while Derek played with Ariel as Nova lay back on the beach towel, stretching her legs as she let the sun dry her breasts and nipples.

Derek Wildstar thus had a surrepetitious opportunity to compare the naked bodies of the two women he had been most initimate with in the physical sense in his life.

Derek estimated that Diane weighed maybe 140-145 pounds now. The first thing he noticed about her is that, while she was in good shape (her position as an EDF Engineering Officer could be strenuous, so she had to be in good shape, parts of her seemed to have a bit of mass and she had a rather curvaceous form. Her skin was as pale and alabaster as could be, and her blue eyes burned with a fire and sparkle that promised good fun and playfulness, and the trace of malice Derek remembered in them years ago had almost faded. Yet, even though she was beautiful, to Derek…she looked…pretty but…_ordinary_. Yes, that was the best word. Diane looked like an average member of the Fleet as she whispered to Steve and grabbed his hand and kissed it. Derek wished Sandor luck, but in seeing Diane nude again for the first time since the Academy, he saw that she was very attractive, but that too many memories came back for his own good. In fact, he could have sworn she had on the same platform sandals that she had worn the night when she had broken it off with him.

Then, Derek turned from his left to his right, turning his gaze from a woman he had been with to the woman who was inside his skin, inside his head, inside his soul.

Nova was now back to her pre-pregnancy weight of roughly 122, and her lithe, almost feline swimmers' or dancers' build had never looked better. She opened her eyes slightly to smile at him, and he saw the fire that had sometimes burned in those dark eyes ever since he had first met her in the summer of 2199. In looking at his wife, Derek saw a strange mixture of vulnerability mixed with…a backbone of steel. She had very few physical imperfections. Derek knew that one of them had led to her hairstyle, however; Nova had a very few, very small acne scars on her upper forehead that she said "…were leftovers from a three-day chocolate jag I had during exams once in College and a losing battle with a few pimples…" Thus, Nova almost always wore her hair in a mess of bangs over her forehead to hide her old battle scars from her chocolate consumption…even though she still liked chocolate to this day and regularly made Derek the traditional Japanese Valentine's Day chocolates at that time of year.

She had also been self-conscious of her breasts, thinking they were too small. But, he certainly saw no sign of that now.

In fact, as the months had passed, Nova (partly forced to by events, partly because of the heat, and partly because she was getting proud of them) had gradually gotten somewhat less discreet about baring her breasts when Alex and Ariel were hungry…and, truth be told…this had begun to extend to her entire body as she cared more about her children and her comfort and less about what others thought of her.

Sandor broke the spell as he joshed, "Hey, Wildstar? Staring at my fiancee?"

"No, I'm admiring my wife," said Derek. "No offense, Diane..,you look good, but I've got my eyes on my Nova."

"No problem, Derek. Nova, you look sleepy," said Diane. "You also look adorable without anything on."

"I am sleepy," Nova said, yawning again. "The heat made me sleepy, and Alexander wanted my breasts as soon as we got here, so I just stripped as soon as we got here. You?"

"I had a terrycloth romper on," said Diane. "I took it off as soon as I got out of the car with Steve." Then, she said, "I finally picked out my wedding dress. I'd like you and the other girls to go downtown in a few to get fitted for your gowns, which should be in soon afterwards. It's going to be you, Sasha, Katrina, Tatiana and both of the Cleveland twins since we agreed to _uninvite_ Dawn after what she pulled a while back…"

"She already ordered her dress, so I'm making her pay for it," Nova said. "She can use it for a private dance on her own with Hardy or something…the two of them, by themselves. No one really wants to talk with her right now after what she pulled with Sasha and I at Rancho Carne High School that night. It's almost amazing that I want to talk to her."

"You still have to work with her?" Diane asked.

"Yes, and we're friends again, although sometimes I'm not sure why," Nova said. "Besides, she's been hanging around with that Caella person and those airheads Jessica and Jade. I still couldn't believe it when she started going off about Katrina."

"Who did?" Sandor asked.

"Dawn did," Nova yawned as she turned over and lay on her stomach, letting her nude backside catch the rays of the sun. "She came up with this ridiculous story that Katrina is really Princess Invidia in disguise."

"That's crazy, particulary as Katrina Savela has purple hair and looks different and is a pretty nice person when you get to know her," said Sandor. "How does she _supposedly _turn into Invidia?"

"Yeah. Nova? I never heard anything so ridiculous in my life," Derek said.

"Magic, according to that crazy Cometine girl Caella," Nova laughed. "I never heard anything so ridiculous in my life, _either_!" Nova laughed. "Not unless someone reputable observes her doing it? Caella is drunk half the time and I knows she sees all kinds of things, Dawn just hates Katrina after that fistfight _they_ had and she's not in her right mind, and Jessica Springer and Jade, between the two of them, are a pair of airheaded blondes who can barely count to forty between them if they don't have gloves on and go barefoot. Those four are not the world's most reliable witnesses, and I think everyone knows that. I overheard Jade talking with General Stone the other day; even _he_ thinks it's ridiculous that Katrina could be Invidia…luckily for him. Because I know he'd look like an idiot trying to prove it!"

"Have _you_ ever seen Katrina changing into Invidia by creepy Cometine space magic?" teased Diane.

"No," Nova said. "We've been around each other a lot, even at the _onsen._ You think you'd see some sign of her changing when she's naked in the bath, but there is no such sign of it…even though she is much more modest about her body, even at the bath, or the beach…than we are. Even though she _is_ a very cute girl with her clothes off…"

Then, IQ-9 came up as he said, "Nova, can I play around with your shorts? You look cute in those…I…NOVVVVA!"

Nova opened her eyes and looked at IQ as she stood up and yawned while stretching on her toes. "Hi, IQ! I'm sorry, but you can't lift my skirt today since I'm not even _wearing_ one," she sang as sweat just ran down her body. "And if you want to play with my shorts, they're over there. Give them back when you're done, please…unless you want me to go home like this? I'm sorry, but my cooling fan and heat sinks are not working very well," she said with a little smile "So I had to uncover my motherboard…I hope you like the design architecture…even though you've seen me like this before already in the shower on the _Danube_," Nova teased, while thinking, _My God, it's so hot that I'm not getting much relief from this, even in the nude! And I have nothing else to take off!_

"Yes, and when we've had space warps," added IQ-9. "I am not a human, Nova, and do not suffer from warp sickness, so I looked. In deep hyperspace, you appear nude about 24 point 292 percent of the time for at least two seconds. Transitory effect. So does almost everyone else."

"You pervert!" Nova teased. Then, feeling nostalgic, she sighed, "Remember when I had command of that cruiser, IQ? I missed Derek so much then…"

"Ahhhh….ahhhh…ahhh…ahh…you are designed better than Ms. Eloise, my lady robot squeeze…I…I…..I…" Then, IQ made a weird noise…and just shut down….

"What _happened_?" Nova cried. "IQ?" Then, she got up and reached over him, tapping at his dome. "Tinwit…c'mon…_wake up!_" She looked at some of the meters in his dome, and then just knelt barefoot in the sand to open his access panel in the back. Nova brought up his auxilary basic BIOS system on a small screen in his innards, and, tapping at a keypad hidden inside his body, she said, "Steve, have you checked his main heat sink lately?"

"It was working fine on his last diagnostic check six days ago on the ship, Nova," Sandor said.

"His core temperature spiked thirty degrees centigrade in about…oh, the past minute," Nova said. Derek didn't know if it was jealousy, fear of the unknown, or what, but he was getting just a little freaked out by the sight of his naked wife kneeling in such close proximity to the Tinwit with her hands in his guts! "Wonder what could have caused that?" she said.

"Nova, dear, the cause is obvious to all of us except you," giggled Diane.

"And that _is_?" Nova said tartly.

Eager came up in a swimsuit with his girlfriend and said, "Simple, Nova. When he got a good look atcha nekkid, his artificial intelligence just went berserk! He probably shut down to keep from explodin' at the sight of you…"

"Which is not an uncommon occurrence," laughed Derek.

"You know It is too hot to get dressed in my outfit again on this beach," Nova huffed, getting a bit defensive and snappy in the heat. She had been on edge more than usual lately, as well. "Besides, I want to go swimming, and maybe surf a little. Since I didn't bring a bikini, well….I _have_ to go in like this and this _is_ a clothes-optional beach park! I'm not breaking any damn laws, right?" she snapped.

"None at all," teased Derek, who looked at her and said, "You once said we were going to be the Adam and Eve of a new Earth, as I quote, Eve, "_And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed…_""

"Genesis chapter 2, verse twenty-five," Nova said. "Call me Peppermint, Derek…I think I like that better than Eve right now," Nova said as she kissed Derek.

Nova looked at a gauge on IQ and said, "I also don't think there's anything wrong with being naked on a beach where it is allowed when the temperature is over a hundred and twenty degrees Faherenheit out and it's humid out! But you wouldn't know anything about being hot and itchy with your clothes on! You're a damn robot! And, Derek first chance I get, I am stripping _you_ down too whether you like it or not! We are taking a long underwater skinny-dip together before we leave!"

"Akk," said Derek who made everyone laugh at his reaction.

* * *

Sandor took off and held hands with Diane in the meantime. He said, "Well...you know the operation was a success…"

"It was?" Diane said eagerly.

Steve nodded and he kissed her. "The medical test results came in the other day. The auto-transplant worked….and I'm fertile. So, unless you want to be pregnant right now, dear…you will need to get a shot," Sandor said as he kissed Diane and gently ran a finger down her naked breasts. He then looked around, and while watching Nova working on the Tinwit, he touched Diane's nude bottom and then teased her womanhood a little with the other hand.

"Steve," blushed Diane. "Sure no one's going to see us if you do that?"

"Well," he whispered. "I tried not to look too much, but as we were coming up on the beach before, it looked as if a certain Commodore and his lady were lying there doing a few things while he was putting sunscreen on her…Nova had…this smile on her face…"

"Put a smile on _my_ face, then," said Diane as they kissed while she let Sandor touch her intimately. At this moment, she was very glad she had decided to go naked on the hot beach.

"I like the way your family jewels look, Steve," purred Diane as they hugged and kissed.

* * *

In the meantime, Nova continued with, "I'm sorry, IQ…I'm not curtailing my afternoon swim because of you! Nor should I! It's too hot to dance or do Yoga today, besides! There…the spike is going down..now, hitting, CTRL-ALT-DELETE…and here's hoping he is still drowsy when he comes out of it….so I can dash away from him!"

Nova rebooted IQ-9, and listened as the chimes that indicated the little robot's return to awareness came up. Nova pulled her hands out of him, and jumped up, preparing to go up on her toes and run, but he spun around, advanced on Nova, and pounced on her, making her fall back on her backside in the sand with a loud yelp. Thus pinned for the moment, Nova looked horrified as his mechanical hands ran over her shoulders, breasts, and then even over her bare nipples, as she yelled, "IQ! NOT THERE! STOP IT! I'M NOT INJURED AND I DO NOT NEED ANY TREATMENT!"

"You make my sensors _vibrate_.." he said in a weird, warbling voice.

Nova got one of her bare feet up and kicked him as hard as she could. "Derek! Steve! _Diane!_ Get this damned lovesick tub of circuits _off_ me!"

Wildstar, Sandor, and Henson all grabbed IQ at once, and were somehow able to drag the lovesick robot up off of Nova as she skittered back and away from him like a crab. Then, furious, she grabbed the nearest hard object (a clam) and whipped it at his dome while yelling, "IQ, I DO NOT APPRECIATE THE MOLESTATION SHIT! CUT THE CRAP!"

"Nova…I'm…"

Then, he took off and ran down the beach at a good 20 MPH, not speeding up much because, given that he was in a naughty mood, he doubled back and began going around Nova in circles, grabbing at her naked bottom as she sprinted after him, screeching, yelling, and even beginning to curse as IQ went "Gotcha!"

"You Goddamn lousy stinking bag of bolts! You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of colliginous _junk_!" Nova yelled as she ran along with her eyes crossed in rage. "Wait until I catch up with you! I am gonna reprogram you into a friggin' Disco Lamp when I get finished with you, TINWIT! And I'm gonna use you as a lightshow at our next dance! OWW! Stop grabbing at my boobs! You're not one of my babies and you're not Derek!"

Then, Sasha came up behind Deke while he carried Star. Sasha innocently asked, "Auntie, what's wrong?"

IQ-9 stopped in his tracks and began to look at Sasha in the nude and beep. "Which one looks better? Nova or the Princess? Need to compute!"

Nova tried to tackle him as she ran up yelling like a Valkyrie with a Louisville Slugger that she had stolen from a startled crewperson in one hand, but IQ ignored her and came after Sasha with his hands out.

Sasha screamed as he grabbed at _her_ bare breasts, but then IQ yelped as Nova caught up with him and slammed the Louisville Slugger into his butt, hard enough to leave a dent.

As he stood stunned, Sasha stared hard at him and raised her hand, saying, "_Never_ mess with an Iscandarian Princess, Tinwit!"

"Why not…I…?"

IQ-9 then found himself floating in midair as Sasha levitated him off the beach with an evil, _evil _grin on her face! "Auntie Nova! Want to use him as a pinata?"

Nova nodded, smiled, and bashed him about four times with the Louisville Slugger. "IQ, remember that the next time you grab at me when I'm naked! Got that?"

"Yes…Nova…."

"For that, you are coming home with us tonight and making dinner," Nova huffed. "And you are feeding the babies!"

"Nova, that is work for a second series, I am a Nine, a Genius!"

"Would you like me to break your dome then?" Nova said sweetly. "It'll really mess up your visual receptors…if I hit you hard enough!" she sang. "Then you can't look at all of the naked girls and girls in swimwear on this beach…"

"I agree, I agree, I agree," said IQ-9 as the guys laughed and applauded.

"Tinwit gets done in by the ladies!" laughed Homer as he came up with Wendy in tow. She had on only a very small bikini bottom and was carrying her new sons Aaron and Joshua (Joshua was nursing at one of her bare breasts) and she laughed and said, "Hi, IQ….like it up there?"

"What should I do with him, Auntie?" sang Sasha.

"Throw him in the ocean," Nova said as she gave the baseball bat back to the crewman she had appropriated it from with a smile after she picked up a clamshell and hit it in a line drive towards the ocean just for amusement. "He needs to cool off!"

Sasha nodded, shut her eyes, and she used her energy to whip him across the beach and up into the sky in a parabola like a small missile. He went up about a hundred meters, screamed in the distance, and fell into the sea some distance away with a small splash, looking for all the world like Wile E. Coyote laid low by one of his own Acme contraptions, thus letting the Road Runner escape again.

"I hope you like to SWIM, IQ!" Nova yelled out through he hands like a megaphone as she grabbed Derek by the arm and took off laughing. Sasha blew her Aunt and Uncle a kiss as they ran off to parts unknown and Deke threw Sasha a can of soda. She opened it and eagerly drank, smiling and licking her lips after doing so….

* * *

Nova and Derek met up with Diane and Steve a moment later. They returned to talking about Sandor's operation, and his…anatomy.

Diane looked and Steve and smiled and said, "Your…uhhh…jewels? They don't look half-bad now," said Diane. She smiled at him and said, "Why don't you let me get you out of your swim trunks?"

"It would have to be a litte hotter for me to do that…" Steve said.

Nova then said, "Steve, why not just go naked now? Diane will surely like it, You look pretty buff, actually. If you get over your shyness, I may want to sketch you like that sometime. I think you'd make a nice nude sketch in mechanical pencil." She looked at Derek, who blushed as he realized Nova was checking him out, and she said, "I did Derek in the raw in charcoal once. He did me in the nude in full oils. We have it up in our bathroom in the master bedroom above our tub."

Sandor looked at Nova and said, "I always thought you'd make a nice nude study, Nova. You have very pretty shoulders….they're nice and round…"

"Thanks," Nova said, blushing a little even though she was talking to a fellow artist. Sandor had gone to art school before the war and had wanted to be a painter before the war started and he had to turn his sharp mind to engineering. Because of his fame, some of the paintings he had done back in his native Russia now hung in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg in the Neo-USSR. One of his last paintings was a nude of his ex-wife, which he could not stand to look at now. He and Diane had plans to pose her next for a nude painting (which flattered Diane since no one had ever painted her in the nude before), but he and she were looking for the right place to do it in and the right pose.

**AN HOUR LATER….**

Nova was screaming for joy like a little kid as she hung ten on her surfboard after she and Derek had taken a swim together after she had gitten him out of his pants and into _his_ birthday suit. Nova's mother Teri had arrived with Karl and her kids, so Teri was watching Alex and Ariel while Nova surfed naked, which was a new experience for her in this unnatural heat. She was getting nice and cool in the ocean as the water splashed her hot naked body like a very welcome rainstorm. She was up on a fairly gnarly wave, and quite a few people were clapping and yelling, "Go, Nova GO!" while she rode the wave in.

Derek got some _very_ appealing-looking pictures of her from the shore. As she stood on her board with her toes curled up, Sandor smiled from shore and decided that he would have to go in next.

"Diane, got my board ready?"

She nodded; she was kneeling on the ground helping him wax it. Not far away, Sasha and Deke were looking at the board while Sandor asked, "Didn't you guys bring one?"

"Forgot it…and I thought the surfing would be bad…"

"Darn it!" said Sasha, who had been wearing a bikini, but had stripped when Star had gotten hungry. "Then I'll just have to borrow Auntie's board when she's done with it…she told me she spent a lot of money on that thing…"

"How much?" asked Deke.

"Over two thousand," said Sasha as Deke whistled. Derek joked, "You should see her transaction card statement every month. Even though, granted, she has needed a lot of new uniforms, books, and instruments for medical school. And there's the toys she's been buying the kids, and the clothes they need. Why do kids grow like that?" teased Derek. Of course, Derek was not stingy by any means, especially since he had recently bought Nova that new car she had been looking at.

The wave Nova was riding on began to break, and Nova wiped out with a loud squeal. She remembered to take a deep breath just as the wave ate her up, and she quickly kicked hard to dive underwater below the turbulence. Nova positioned herself like she was in zero-G in a spacesuit and floated along underwater for a bit, enjoying the view of a school of fish in the unseasonably warm ocean and wondering vaguely if there were any oyster beds around. Not finding any, she then just kicked up again, her head breaking the surface as she heard Derek yelling for her in a panic when her board made it to shore but she didn't.

"HEY!" she yelled above the waves. "HELLO?"

"Nova!" yelled Derek as he ran into the ocean, thinking he might need to rescue her. "Are you all right?"

"Wet, but fine!" she yelled back as she treaded water. "I'm swimming back now! Tell Steve to hold off on his board until I get back!"

"Will do," said Derek. He looked at Deke and said, "That girl gets into so much trouble every month that it's not even funny, Wakefield. Good thing she's got a fairly good head on her shoulders and a luck factor of plus eighty or so, or she might have been shark food or something like that years ago. Luckily, she only has a pretty fixed set of hobbies; dance, Yoga, martial arts, swimming, diving and surfing, gymnastics, her music, her poetry, her writing, and occassional dabbling in art, auto and astro/motorcycle maintenance, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony."

Deke rolled up his eyes…Sasha was not there. "Sasha wants to learn how to fly…she's been kind of ordered to by her dad….and she also wants to learn how to skydive. Somehow, the idea of the love of my life jumping out of a plane does not appeal to me that much. I wonder why? I wish she'd stick to surfing and her sax."

"Our women are so strong-willed, though, that they usually get what they want, _whenever_ they want it," Derek said. He gave Nova a kiss as the naked couple walked through the waves holding hands, splashing as they came back to shore before working together to carry Nova's surfboard back to another part of the beach.

A few minutes later, Nova and Derek were sitting on a beach towel near their children and Nova's mother as they watched Sandor surfing.

Sasha had reappeared, and she lay there near them in the nude near her abandoned baby-blue bikini and sandals, catching the sun on her bare breasts and wiggling her toes slightly as Deke lay next to her in his baggies cuddling little Star.

"She's growing fast," she said.

"Is she growing _too_ fast like some of those scandal sheets claim?" Nova asked, thinking of the junk tabloid press such as the _Planetary Examiner_.

"Actually, her growth seems to be normal, so far, as best as we can tell" said Deke.

"I know she's hit a developmental milestone or two early, like my kids…" Nova said. "We'll need to keep watching that," Nova said as she tickled little Star (who had on only a sun hat).

Deke smiled and kissed Star as she lay there in the sun beside her naked mother. The young Princess and her baby girl looked adorable together, and Sasha was smiling because a whole slew of gifts had recently arrived straight from Iscandar for herself and her daughter from _her_ mother and father.

Deke kissed Sasha, delighted at her shape and the pefection of her form as she lay there naked. "It didn't take you long to bounce back from being pregnant," he said.

"That's another thing we Iscandarians do quickly," Sasha said with a smile as she tapped him on the nose. She and Deke had just resumed initmate relations again the other day, and he didn't mind the sight of Sasha lying there nude at all, thank you. _The surfing sort of stinks, but this is the only part of this heat wave due to the messed-up Sun that I like_, Deke thought. As the planet baked in this hot, hot summer, Deke thought of the latest briefing they had been through on the topic on the _Argo _a few days ago…it appeared that the Sun would not be expanding after all…but that the periopd of maximum activity might go on for a while longer….for how much longer, no one knew. Would it be several months? Several years? Deke knew they would be checking the Sun quite closely when the _Argo_ would take off on August 8, 2208, the Monday after Sandor and Diane's scheduled wedding on August the sixth.

In the meantime, Nova wasn't sure whether to think her mother had lost her senses, or to pity her in the heat, but, for the first time in a few years (since she had been breastfeeding Aurora and David, anyway), Teri herself had taken the plunge and had finally taken everything off herself in the sticky heat to go into the water naked with little Aurora.

Nova smiled at her little sister as she lay under her mother getting tickled. She thought she looked adorable in just her skin, and with her hair dyed a sort of purplish color (her mother had done so at her request). Seeing her mother tickling Aurora brought back a few pleasant memories for Nova, who remembered a very hot day in San Diego in her childhood where both she and her mother had spent a day at the beach there running around out of their swimsuits gathering seashells and splashing each other in the water. Nova was glad that she and her mother had made up enough recently to allow her to see her raising Aurora and to help out. Nova loved her little sister with a passion and was very protective of her.

Aurora was giggling a little as her mother leaned over her, letting her own nude form dry off in the sun, until she said, "Aurora! Honey! Look at Nova and Derek's friend! He's coming in fast on that wave!"

Aurora turned her little head in awe to watch Sandor as he surfed in.

He was riding in a gnarly wave similar to the sort Nova had been riding, and he smiled a bit as he rode his own wave into shore, with Diane clapping and cheering him on as he came in.

Unlike Nova, he didn't wipe out. He got off his board at the right moment, and grinned as he got his board in.

So far, this was proving to be a fun day, and a nice way to cool off.

Nova danced a little to some surf music that Deke was playing on a portable music player, and Sasha laughed as she got up to dance along.

Deke smiled a little as he looked at them and looked at Sasha and Nova dancing and thought, _Gidget and her aunt. Man, if her Dad Alex could see them now….I think he'd bust a gut laughing!._

Things on the beach were fairly pleasant as everyone tried to enjoy the sun and the surf as best as they could…

It was nothing like that for Ensign Louise Kelly, who had been brought to Planet Spectra with her plane as a captive.

The only thing that Louise had in common with some of her friends on the beach was that she was also naked.

However, unlike them, she had been naked ever since the day of her capture, when she had been chained down to a bed and her Black Tiger uniform had been cut from her body by Captain Blansha, the Spectran commander of the carrier vessel that had attacked San Diego some days ago.

Since then, what Ensign Kelly had experienced….

…was sheer hell.

She had been raped.

Several times.

She had been subjected to torture in her naked skin in cold water and under hot lights. She had had at least two of her toenails on her left foot torn out, and they had barely treated her shrapnel wound on that leg before they finally stitched it very roughly (while she had been conscious) and then had put some kind of caustic synthetic skin over it (and even that treatment had been torture)

Now….on Planet Spectra, on Bast Island, in one of Zoltar's many torture rooms, she was strapped down in a chair….shivering pathetically in her nakedness in this cold, smelly, dank room.

…where, a moment later, in spite of herself, she cried out in utter agony as she suffered electrocution.

"TALK, damn you, you whore!" yelled General Egobussar as he slapped her face. "What is Earth Defense planning in retaliation for the attack?"

"I don't know," wept Ensign Louise Kelly.

Egobussar slapped her again. "You must know, you fucking slut!"

"No, I don't know!" sobbed Louise. "They didn't tell us that much in their briefings! Your attack surprised us!"

Egobussar stepped back and said, "Give her two hundred this time! Maybe that'll convince this little bird to start singing!"

Then, they turned on the electricity again.

Louise screamed as she writhed, naked and in pain, against her bonds in the torture chair. Zoltar came in, smiled, and said, "Egobussar, hit her pelvic area with a special charge. Make her soil herself!"

Egibussar flicked a switch, and, a moment later, against her will, some savage green bolt of energy hit poor Ensign Kelly right in her exposed genitals, and her bladder let go as they forced her to urinate all over the place. Of course, with her delicate area wet with her own wastes, the electricity hurt her even more as it hit her there.

"Awwwww…look," said Egobussar as he cruelly mocked Ensign Kelly. "Baby peed herself! Does baby need a _diaper_?" he said as he came in close to Louise and cradled her chin.

Louise snarled at Egobussar and spat in his face.

"YOU SHIT!" yelled the Spectran warlord as he backhanded Ensign Kelly across the face. He slapped her in the ear, making her ear ring. Then, he went over to her left foot and stomped on the barefoot captive's toes, breaking two of them.

"You know, Lord Zoltar, captives like her are more _interesting_ to break, aren't they?"

"They are," Zoltar purred. "And more fun, too. I get such joy out of breaking little sluts like her!"

"YOU'LL NEVER BREAK ME, YOU FREAKS!" screamed Louise, defiant even in her agony and fear.

She was defiant even as they turned the electricity back on and laughed at her in her pain as she writhed and shivered.

* * *

**II. BACK AT HOME**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Derek and Nova Wildstar's Residence**

**Thursday July 21, 2208**

**1752 Hours**

* * *

When they arrived home from the beach later that afternoon, Nova and Derek knew that the group coming over to their place would want to use the pool. Working as quickly as possible, Nova went up to their closet again, took off the pink romper and sandals she had put back on before leaving the beach, and she took a very quick shower. Once out of the shower, Nova quickly clothed her nakedness (while whispering to Derek, who was putting on a swimsuit, that if it was just them at home, and she had to open the pool, she might have just remained naked in their yard behind their wall, hedges, and trees) in a white fundoshi and a very light silken blouse on top, which she kept unbuttoned, tying it under her breasts to keep it minimally closed.

Thus minimally clothed in the late afternoon heat (it was still 109), and remaining barefoot, Nova ran outside to the pool area behind its high, ivy-covered cypress fence, and she jumped into the water to collect a few bits of paper that the automatic skimmer wouldn't catch. She then got into a quick laughing splash fight with Jonathan and his girlfriend Felicia, who was back in town with her parents on business. While in the water, Nova waved "hi" to Deke and Sasha and yelled to them, "You can find snacks in the kitchen; I have Ms. Eloise and IQ-9 preparing them!"

"The party continues yet again, huh?" said Deke.

"I guess so," Nova sighed. She ran back into the house, where she found Derek downstairs in the rec room tending bar. "I see you found a new job," she said.

"You always make me do this when we have a party," he teased. Nova thought he looked very cute in a simple shirt that hung half-open in the heat, a pair of shorts, and bare feet.

Nova then turned around to look at a half-finished painting she had been working on as Diane Henson popped into the rec room through the curtain and yelled at Nova, "Hey! Where were you? The others were waiting?"

"Waiting on what?" Nova asked.

"Food, you big silly!" yelled Diane.

Nova looked at Diane and her bikini and asked, "Just curious; where did you find that swimsuit?"

"Your poolhouse!" Diane yelled back. Then, she looked at Nova and asked, "And why is your butt half-out in that fundoshi thing?"

"It's the way you're supposed to wear one," Nova said. "At least one like this. I'm comfortable. I saw you at the beach…where we were both running around completely naked before….what's the big deal?"

"Nothing," said Diane. _Except that you look too damn good dressed down like that_, Diane thought with a little tinge of jealousy.

Diane then thought of something else as she said, "You remember my girlfriend Tatiana Lubyanska?"

"I remember," Nova said, thinking of a period of time when Diane and Tatiana had explored a lesbian relationship. "By the way, you told Steve about that, right?"

Diane laughed. "Of course he knows, and he's fine with it. Well, Tatiana has a new girlfriend now."

"Who?" Nova asked.

"Your friend Vanessa Smythe from the hospital in San Diego."

"I sort of thought so," Nova said. "I did catch them playing footsie in the hospital cafeteria once with their sandals kicked off under the table one day. I sort of thought it was cute."

"Did you say anything?"

"No," Nova said.

"And why not?" Diane teased.

"I was also playing footsie with Derek at the same time," Nova said, blushing like crazy. "With _my_ sandals off. And his sneaker off."

"You two are funny," Diane said.

Nova looked down at Diane's bare feet for a moment as she compared nail polish colors with her own bare toes. "Who did that pedicure?"

"I did," said Diane. "Yours?"

"Nail salon up the road," Nova said softly. "Oh, by the way, you and I are _not_ sitting down and playing footsie," Nova teased. "You're my friend, Diane, but we aren't _that_ close!"

"You're a kook," Diane said as she smiled at Nova.

"And you're trouble, my friend…." Nova said back. Nova then gave Diane a sisterly kiss on the forehead and said, "Now go find Steve and get a drink and go get into some trouble with him. Shoo!" Nova said with a teasing smile.

Diane guessed the reason why when she turned her head and found IQ-9 and Ms. Eloise behind the bar and Derek playing an antique pinball machine that the Wildstars had in their rec room. Nova sidled over to watch Derek playing pinball, and soon, they were both playing it together when Derek finished his game.

* * *

A few minutes later, Diane Henson sat with Stephen Sandor in the Wildstars' rec room.

Sandor looked at Diane, and said, "Well we're going to be married soon! After we get married…when do you want to try for kids? Now that…everything finally works?"

"About a year or so from now," Diane said. "You know…after this crisis with that terrorist planet calms down. If we fight them off hard enough, I'm sure they'll pretty much give up…like the R'Khells."

Sandor smiled at his fiancee and said, "I think that'll work out fine, Diane…" Then, he kissed her and said, "You know I love you…"

"Same here," said Diane as she just let him hold her.

* * *

**FOUR DAYS LATER….**

It rained over the latter part of the weekend, providing some relief from the heat in the Tokyo Megalopolis.

On Monday morning, July the 25th, therefore, Commodore Derek Wildstar dressed in his EDF blues for a drive to EDF Headquarters. Nova had the day off from her work at the hospital and would not be going back aboard the _Argo_ to work on the computers again until later in the week when some new parts arrived to begin the final phase of the repairs on the computer system and the warp drive, estimated to take two weeks. As a result, Nova wore a sky-blue blouse, tartan skirt, and went barefoot as she kissed Derek goodbye that morning.

"You have a good trip downtown," Nova said as she kissed him.

"You want to do some flying practice I get back?" Derek asked. "I can have our SuperStar fighters ready."

"Tomorrow, Derek, after my morning shift ends at the hospital. Alex and Ariel are running around like crazy in there so I need to get in with them soon. I don't want one of them running out down the street with their training pants pulled off again…like the other day…"

"You thought that was cute…admit it," Derek said.

"It was cute, but it was a _pain_," Nova said back.

"Going to the beach again today?" Derek said. "Where we had to go the other day was a bit of a drive, but we have our beach…"

"Uhh…not today, Derek. I just heard a story there's a drunken creep walking around who leers at women on the beach. I could take him, but without you around, I'd feel better sunning or nursing the kids naked in the sun behind the fence in the yard today. I hope they catch that creep soon. I heard about him from Diane after church yesterday."

"Well, you take care, Nova," he said, looking worried. Then he said, "Are you sure I should be leaving you alone?"

Nova laughed. "Derek, you know me. I messed up Dawn pretty good the other week. If someone ever tried to molest me again, I'll take care of them. Just like I did with Stovall years ago when I put him in the hospital. Besides, I'm getting so good at fighting, Diane came to me the other day for some self-defense tips. Nice to be someone's _sensei_…and I think I can take my black belt test later in the summer."

"Yeah…after what I heard about that fight with Dawn, you're full of piss and vinegar this month," Derek said. "Well, take care, Mrs. Graziano!" he said with a teasing grin, referring to the famous fighter, Rocky Graziano.

"I got that bum in da fourth round," Nova whispered in his ear in a mock New York accent. "Bye!"

"Bye, Nova," Derek said. He watched her as she waved, flipped around on the balls of her feet, and ran back into the townhouse with a dancers' grace.

_I worry about you, but something about you tells me you can take care of yourself, Nova. Have a good day with the kids…._Derek thought as he left to go to his car.

* * *

About two days later, however, their little world was rocked by an unpleasant and most unexpected event on Wednesday, July the 27th.

The day began normally enough for the Wildstars. Breakfast for the babies and themselves…going out on the beach to run PT together while Jonathan watched the babies, and then Nova going off to the hospital for a four-hour shift and dropping Alex and Ariel off at the daycare center at the hospital in her Subaru while Derek went to the _Argo_ and got more reports from Stephen Sandor and Diane Henson about the refit progress. They seemed especially cuddly today, and Derek asked, "Why so close?"

"Didn't Nova tell you?" Diane said as she tweaked her former boyfriend's nose. "The wedding day will be soon!"

"Yeah," he said as he laughed nervously.

Derek and Steve blushed at that as Diane guffawed while drinking her beer.

Then, Commodore Wildstar caught wind of the time and said, "I'd better get home. I promised Nova I'm making lunch. She'll be home soon."

"Don't set the place on fire, Derek…like you nearly set my dorm room on fire once," Diane teased.

"What was he trying to do?" said Steve.

"Microwave something," Henson teased.

"Oh, like that time on the ship?" teased Steve.

"Sandor, don't _remind_ me of that!" said Derek.

"When Nova had to get the fire extinguisher to extinguish the microwave?" teased Diane.

"Oh, yeah, that's when she had to extinguish _you _next," said Sandor with a grin.

"I forgot. Why?" said Derek.

"Because your pants got set on fire when you pulled the fake chicken Cordon Bleu, made of seaweed, out of the microwave?" said Diane as Derek hid his face in his hands and groaned. "That time, we were all on you for a week about Nova putting out the fire in your pants…"

"Okay, I blushed. What did Nova do when you mentioned it?" said Derek.

"Ran out of the room, I think." said Diane. "That girl gets embarrassed so easily that it's not funny."

"Okay, guys, quit ragging on the wife," said Derek. "Especially since she's not here…"

"…to make me a cup of coffee?" Diane said. "Thank GOD for small miracles! Hallelujah!"

* * *

Later that day, Commodore Wildstar met Nova at the airfield after she completed her shift and dropped off the kids at home.

There, she kissed Derek, took a small bag she had into the ladies' locker room of the Headquarters section of the base, and, there, she changed out of her Medical garb to her standard gold and black uniform.

She and Derek met at the tarmac in flight gear, and they both went up in Derek's Super Star that day. It would be a "check flight" for both of them, with Derek flying the leg out while Nova (to get practice with her continuing instructing work with Sasha) sat in the aft place and graded his flying and the plane's performance. They went southwest this time, landing at a small EDF base near Panama at a strip in the rain forest. While looking at the rain forest, Nova sighed and said, "Derek, if only we had a few more hours. We could get into there…explore a bit, get some pictures, maybe…go swimming…" She winked at him at that. Derek smiled back, blushed, and said, "If only we had time, Nova. We don't. So, we'll make a date for some other day, then….okay?"

"Fine," Nova said after she wiped some sweat from her brow.

Nova flew them back to the Tokyo Megalopolis while Derek graded her flying. Her grade was almost, but not quite as high as Derek's.

Back at the airbase after a two-hour run, both of them were hot, tired, and sticky. The heat of the city made it worse.

"See you in a few minutes," Derek said to Nova after they debriefed.

Nova smiled and nodded back….

**A FEW MINUTES LATER….**

_That shower felt so good…whew…_ Nova said to herself as she came out of the shower and back into the ladies' locker room naked. She got two towels, one for herself and one for her hair, dried off, and then opened her locker and began to dress herself. She looked at a clock on the wall; the time was about 1602 Hours, or 4:02 PM.

First, she clothed herself in light pink panties, followed by a light long-sleeved schoolgirlish blouse that buttoned up conveniently for nursing the babies. The blouse went right on over her bare upper torso, and it felt good going on.

Nova then sat bare-legged on a bench and pulled out a new pair of Roman-style gladiator sandals that Derek hadn't seen her in before. As she heard loud male singing in the mens' locker room, which was at the other side of a passage where there was a large frosted plate-glass window in each locker room that let in extra light, but preserved privacy, Nova just shook her head and ignored it, thinking, Bo_ys will be boys. Sounds like Derek and Deke Wakefield in there. _

After Nova buckled on her sandals, wiggling her toes in the almost boot-like shoes, she stepped into the light blue knee-length skirt she had chosen to go with this outfit.

Then, Nova stood before a mirror and combed her hair for a bit, starting like a rabbit when she heard a noise.

"What's that?" she said out loud in the empty locker room. "Hello?"

Nova thought she heard a cough, and then a stealthy footstep or two.

After a moment, Nova gave up, and was almost about to walk out of the locker room and forget about it…

…when, suddenly, there was a loud creak….

…and Nova looked on in shock as she heard and saw the door to the janitor's closet coming open, and a man stepping out in the women's locker room!

He was a Space Marine. Mrs. Wildstar guessed by his gait that he was drunk, and it was confirmed when he yelled at her in a slurred voice, "Hey ya! Fancy elite-unit officer pilot dames shouldn't be in a room all alone with Space Marine Corporals like us! Why don' cha forget flyboy space jockey hubby for a bit and come to a hotel room wid' me?"

"What were you doing in there?" Nova demanded. "This is off-limits for you, Corporal! If you get out of here, maybe I won't put you on report!"

"Ya got gorgeous tits and a gorgeous ass, babe!" he yelled. "Saw you comin out of the shower and clothin' that bare ass! Let's get cha out of those clothes again, babe! Ya look too HOT in them!"

Then, the ugly Marine Corporal ran up behind Nova….

And, as she screamed with the sudden contact, he grabbed her breasts from behind and began to squeeze. Nova found the squeeze to be very painful and she screamed.

Then, he squeezed her bottom. Nova screamed again, appalled at the ugly Marine's breath…the crazed look in his eyes, and even the ugly pink scar on his nose.

Nova got her hands free, and then, just as she heard a door slamming somewhere, she grabbed the Marine's hands, pulled them off her breasts, and then, holding on tightly while she stomped the deck, she screamed "KIYYYYYAAAAEE!" and threw the Marine up and then over her shoulder.

The Space Marine flew through the air and crashed right through the huge frosted window.

The window exploded out into the hall as the Marine went through it with a loud yell, and then there was a loud tinkling and crashing sound.

Derek ran out of the locker room in just a towel yelling, "Hey! WHAT?"

Nova ran out, fists up, and she kicked the Marine, yelling, "C'MON you! Get up and fight me like a man if you're going to grab at me like that! C'mon!"

Then, she kicked him again as Derek said, "Nova, I think he's already knocked out!"

"Oh. Sorry. When I fight off perverts, you know I go a little overboard. Remember what I did to Sergeant Knox that time when he tried to grab me when the _Argo's_ gravity went out when we got attacked by Desslok's Starflies?"

"Yeah," Derek said as he chuckled at the memory and the mental image of how Nova had looked when she had flung Knox around in zero-G. "You threw him right against the bulkhead and he hit the upper aft starboard screen on Bridge Number One!"

"I think he left a dent when he hit those screens," Nova chuckled. "When I was up there on a cherry picker looking at the screen connections the other day, I believe I noticed it's still there."

Derek whistled. "They're gonna make you pay for that window…"

"No, they'll make _him_ pay for it," Nova said.

"Why?"

"Silly!" Nova said. "He's the one who put his hands on _me!_ It's _his_ fault, and not mine! I acted entirely in self-defense to protect myself and my virtue."

"Wakefield!" snapped Derek. "Get dressed and call the Shore Patrol. They need to pick this jackass up. Lend Nova your regular service sidearm….not DJ. Nova, if he wakes up and tries anything funny, you have my permission to ventilate him."

"Thank you," Nova said as she borrowed Wakefield's regular Astro-Automatic. Deke ran off carrying DJ over his shoulder.

A few minutes later, the Marine woke up. He noticed Nova pointing her Astro-Automatic at him.

He leered at her and said, "Baby, you look kinda aggressive!"

"Shut the hell up," Nova snapped. "You're under military arrest, buddy. And, boy, you are going to be in a load, a major load….of trouble."

"Yeah?" said the Marine. He sat up, rapidly…almost too rapidly, and he made a grab for Nova's weapon. Nova jumped back a few steps, keeping her weapon trained on him.

"You come one step closer to me, and I'll shoot!" Nova yelled.

Then, he made a rush for Nova and tried to tackle her.

Nova jumped back, stumbled, and fell on her butt with an angry scream.

She shot at the Marine, but her shot went wide and blew apart a ceiling tile, instead.

Nova aimed again and adjusted her sight picture, and she fired again, grazing the Marine's shoulder. She distinctly saw the laser charge hittting his shoulder and saw his blood hitting the side of the wall.

The Marine turned about, tore a fire extinguisher off the wall, and threw it at Nova. Nova jumped to avoid the missile (which almost slammed into her kneecaps) but she ran after the Marine and fired at him again, just as he threw himself into a closet and locked it.

Nova faced the closet. "Think you're getting away from me in there, you idiot?" she barked. "Wrong! I know how to shoot out locks!"

Nova fired at the lock, and blew it to bits. She pulled the door open and screamed at what she saw.

The Marine was in there.

But, he was lying there naked with his eyes wide open, and glazed, and he had flies crawling on his face.

Nova felt revulsion as she felt his face. Cold. Ice cold.

Her guess was proven right when she felt his neck.

No pulse.

No respiration.

"He's dead," Nova whispered out loud as Derek, Deke, and the Shore Patrol found her. "Derek! This is the Marine who was just chasing me! That face is unmistakable…see that scar? He's dead!"

"Dead?" Derek said.

Nova nodded her head, mystified. She looked at his bare right shoulder. "I just shot him there when he was running from me," she said. "I grazed him! I clearly remember that!"

"Nova, this guy has no damn wound on his shoulder," Deke said.

"Yeah….that's the weird part," Nova said. "If I didn't wound this Marine, then, who did I wound? And this man is as dead as a rock and is going cold already, so he apparently has been dead for hours. How could he have tried to rape me just a few minutes ago?"

Derek gritted his teeth. _This makes no sense,_ he thought.

**THE WILDSTARS' HOUSE**

**THREE HOURS LATER….. (About 2010 Hours)**

"Derek, thank you for that shower when we got the kids in for their nap," Nova said as she lay in bed naked with Derek. "It got the taint of that man, _so-called,_ off me. Whoever he was…"

"Nova, thank you for not…you know…refusing me," Derek said hesitantly as they cuddled while kneeling unclothed on their bed. "I mean, given that you just got grabbed…and that it's happened before, you have the right to be distrustful of men now and then…"

"You're not just _men_," Nova huffed. "You're _you_, Derek. The man I love. The man I married. The commander I respect; even if I think some of your ideas are stupid at times….as for…what we just did…I needed and still need to be with you…to bleach the taint of being molested again out of my mind….and I really have to take that test for my Black Belt soon. Then, go up a few more levels…"

"How do you feel…I mean…about these things when they happen to you?"

"Used. Wasted. But I know the people that pull this crap on me are not shining examples of mankind. Sparks and his bunch; troubled and desperate men with issues. Stovall. An utter scumbag who also completely raped poor Dawn years ago! This Space Marine Corporal Jenkins that we just met? Or the man…whoever he was…who took his identity? A drunk and a womanizer based on his jacket."

Derek then looked at her breasts. "You poor thing….they're turning red there….is that where he squeezed you?"

Nova nodded. "I think I'm going to be showing some bruising in the morning. She then turned around and showed Derek a handprint on one of her bare buttocks. "He got me here, too. I've going to have to be a little more modest on the beach, heat or no, until these heal up. Then, I'll be happy to wear a bikini…or go naked for you…again."

Derek smiled at her and held her again and tenderly kissed her, vey carefully caressing the hurt areas on her body with a gentleness that made Nova want to cry.

The phone rang. Nova picked up, making sure that the video was off, sighing "Moshi-moshi…." She listened for a bit and then said, "Doctor Sane! Are you _serious_? Yes….and you say the evidence you and the CID Detective saw was…?"

Derek wondered what was going on untiil Nova said. "I'll meet you there in the morning at 0700, then. Bright and early! Thanks. Goodbye…"

"What was that about?" Derek said.

"We know Corporal Jenkins is dead," Nova sighed. "They found something weird from the blood sample taken from the wall. Remember I told you that I shot him, and some of his blood hit the bulkhead by that fire extinguisher? They found his blood. It does not match Corporal Jenkins. Not at all!"

"That doesn't make any sense," Derek said.

"Yeah…you're telling me," Nova said. "There's going to be an autopsy tomorrow morning so we can see how long Jenkins was really dead when we found him in that closet! I'll have to be there to assist Doc Sane. Can you give the kids breakfast?"

"I think so," Derek said.

"Thanks," Nova replied…with a wan, pale smile.

* * *

**III. ZOLTAR'S NEXT MOVE**

**Planet Spectra**

**Bast Island**

**(Earth Date) Thursday July 28, 2208**

**0700 Hours Earthtime**

* * *

In the meantime, on Spectra, a ship came in on Bast Island.

General Egobussar greeted the ship. Zoltar stumbled off the ship, holding his hastily bandaged shoulder.

"What happened on Earth?" demanded Egobussar.

"It was _not_ a good day," hissed Zoltar. "I found a random Space Marine known to be a womanizer, murdered him, and took his identity. Then, I attempted to rape and kill our first target, that damned Star Force woman Nova Wildstar. Right?"

"I take it the attack was a failure, Lord? Did her man do that to you?" asked Egobussar, looking at Zoltar's shoulder.

"NO! She did it herself by shooting me! After throwing me through a plate-glass window while she had…a dress on! The damned woman is a trained special forces warrior and an absolute maniac! If we could get her to join Spectra, I think we could make a very effective Devil Star Assassin out of the skinny little _bitch_!" Zoltar roared. "Oh. She doesn't like me very much, either."

"I sort of grasped that," chuckled Egobussar.

Zoltar grabbed some wine, poured himself a big glass, and slammed down the bottle. "Fucking bitch!" he snapped. "Oh! Are we still torturing that Ensign to death?"

"Yes. We're close to breaking her, but…"

"All right. Ensign Louise Kelly will die today. I will execute her. And I intend to do the job myself…slowly," said Zoltar. "Have her brought to the Medical Wing. I plan to…_dissect_ her…"

"Dissect her?" said Egobussar.

"Yes. While she is strapped down to the operating table, naked and stll very conscious…"

Zoltar and Egobussar laughed like demons at the thought of seeing the poor woman die in torment.

* * *

In an examining room in Central Hospital, Corporal Jenkins' sad dead body lay under a sheet.

Nova, in her nurse's wear, pulled the sheet off his face and bowed her head in a silent prayer for the Marine's soul in which Doctor Sane joined. The only ones there were the two of them and a morgue denier who would assist the small doctor and slender nurse and soon-to-be-Medical student in their post-mortem of the Marine.

Soon, the autopsy began. Nova was surprised to observe that Sane was stepping back on purpose and letting her do most of the work.

"Why are we doing it this way?" she asked as she worked at making the Y-cut from collarbones to pubic bone in Jenkins' nude body.

"You're about to be a doctor," Sane said. "You're going to need the experience, Nova. Have a look at this chart made by the Medical Examiners' office. They did a probe of his liver temperature when they brought him in here around 1900 Hours yesterday. You look at those numbers and tell me what you see…"

Nova looked at the numbers through the lab goggles she had on over her eyes. "If these numbers are right…this man was dead for five hours at the time that the man wearing his face and identity assaulted me…time of death, around 1100 Hours that morning." Nova worked with a bone saw to remove the front of Jenkins' rib cage. "Substantial edema and bleeding in the lungs….see that, Doctor?"

"Not hard to see. Nova, now I'm seeing bruising at his throat. Get that area opened up."

Nova worked to gently cut open Jenkins' throat. She looked carefully at the exposed regions. "Crushed larynx….crushed windpipe…substantial bruising in the tissues in the neck," Nova said. "Doctor, I'd say that this Marine was manually strangled to death…by a very strong person…"

"Looks like he was strangled one-handed, Nova," said Sane. "See the marks?"

Nova had a look at the bruising and whistled. "Whoever did this to him had the strength of a vise." Nova then went quiet. "And the man who assaulted me was remarkably strong, too. He squeezed my breasts, Doctor. I woke up this morning…I usually sleep in the nude because of this heat…and because Derek likes it. I have a few small bruises around my breasts…and…"

"Nova, if you don't mind, could you undo your tunic and show me?" Sane asked. "Mister Yamamoto, please step out of the room for a few minutes?" he said to the denier.

The morgue attendant left as Nova said, "I was thinking of showing you after we get finished, but, all right," Nova said as she took off her gloves. Then, she stepped back, took off her goggles, and removed her hair cap and mask. Then, she opened her nurse's minidress, pulled it off over her head, and took off her bra and stepped out of her panties, standing before Sane a moment later in the nude except for her sandals. She sat on an examining table, allowing Doctor Sane to look at the bruises on and around her breasts with a penlight while she took her sandals off. "Nova, this must have hurt."

"I barely noticed at the time because I was full of adrenaline and I was fighting him. My counterattack took him by surprise," Nova said as she turned over onto her stomach, bracing herself against the examining table with her toes. Sane looked at her bottom and whistled. "Don't tell me this isn't hurting you…look at that damn bruise…"

"I'm taking some pain meds, self-prescribed," Nova said. She also said, "You'll see a bag over there. I brought along the blouse and skirt I had on yesterday, so maybe we can take scrapings off them for skin and DNA of my actual assailant." Sane nodded, noticed something as Nova moved around and he gently said, "Spread your legs a little…please." Nova blushed but she let Sane have a look at her nether regions and intimate parts as Sane noticed a very small deposit on the outer part of her womanhood. "Don't tell me this isn't a semen stain," Sane whispered softly. "Nova…did your assailant…did he penetrate you?"

"No," Nova said in a very soft voice. "I gave him a good fight and he never even got my skirt up or my panties down, thank God. That's from Derek. I must have missed it in the shower. We made love at home that evening by mutual consent after the incident. I specifically asked him to…so I wouldn't feel so dirty and filthy afterwards. Thank heavens that Derek is still the only man in the universe I've ever had intercourse with. And that's the way I mean to have it until I die."

"I'm done looking," Sane said. "You can get dressed…we can finish the autopsy," he said, giving Nova's bottom an affectionate pat stemming from their long friendship. Nova smiled at Sane, sat up, kissed him lightly on his bald head, and walked away to dress. When Nova had her clothes back on and pulled on a fresh pair of gloves, she and Sane went back to examining the remains of Corporal Jenkins after Sane called Yamamoto back in. They looked at Jenkins' organs, saw evidence of further bruising, and took blood samples and samples of other body fluids. They made notes, observed damage to his form, and Nova made up microscope slides of blood samples taken from Jenkins and a bit of the unknown blood found on the wall after she had shot her assailant (who was, of course, Zoltar in disguise in Jenkins' form and uniform after he had killed the real Jenkins, but they did not know that yet). With a grumble, Nova consented to have some of her own Type A Positive blood drawn by Sane as a control to compare the unknown party's blood against.

Commodore Wildstar came into the room a while later while Nova and Doctor Sane were at work.

"Hi," he said. "How is the analysis, going, Doc?"

"We're getting closer to something, but I'm not sure what yet," said Sane.

"I have some results on the blood work," Nova said. "Oh, hi, Derek! Following me to work?" she quipped.

"You could say that," Derek said as they both laughed a little before Nova turned back to the results.

"Doctor," Nova said. "There are so many different genetic markers here that this blood is definitely _not _human."

"Which sample is it?" said Sane.

"The one from off the wall, Doctor," said Nova.

"Let me see that," said Sane. "You're right," he said. "Wildstar, that person Nova shot yesterday was not human and not from Earth at all."

"Alien operative," sighed Derek. "Congratulations, Nova…you fought off some alien…terrorist…rapist…whatever."

"I must have been lucky," said Nova.

"Yeah, you're lucky it's not _you_ on that autopsy table!" Derek snapped.

"Don't you think I know that, Derek," Nova said, a little testily. "Sorry. Just tired. I didn't sleep well last night…"

"Makes two of us," said Derek. "What do you plan to do after you finish this analysis?"

"Come home early with Alex and Ariel?" Nova said. "If that is all right, Doctor…I need a partial sick day…after what happened…"

"No problem," said Sane. "It's a great thing you came in today at all," he said.

"You could sort of say it was personal," Nova said, as she looked at the body on the table. "Derek, if you'd step out to let us finish? I'll see you in the cafeteria later…"

"Okay," said Commodore Wildstar.

* * *

Later on, Derek sat with Nova in the hospital cafeteria, sharing a sort of desultory breakfast at about 1130 Hours. Nova had run out of the house having eaten nothing but some toast and coffee, having devoted most of her time to bathing the twins, dressing them, giving them breakfast, and letting them nurse a little before she had left. Now, back in the pink romper and thongs she had worn out of the house, she said, "You look as if you've barely slept, Derek…"

"I did barely sleep. I heard you tossing and turning when you were trying to sleep," Derek said. "Nova…do you think you might need to see a counselor?"

"Maybe," she sighed. "Give me about a week, though. After that last time, when Stovall got at me years ago, I didn't need one…"

"No…but you did spend a few nights awake crying in my arms," Derek said softly. "It's just…after these things happen to you…I do not like seeing you suffer…"

"I hope that alien operative doesn't try anything else…with anyone else," Nova said. "Who was he, and what did he want?"

"I wish we knew who it was," Derek said. "How's the work on the _Argo's _computers going, by the way?"

"Sort of slow," Nova said. "We may have to pull an all-nighter on the ship in a few nights…"

"Let me know so I can bring the kids," Derek sighed.

"Derek…you don't have to," Nova said.

"Do you think I feel comfortable letting you out of my sight…after what happened?" Derek demanded as his hand closed over Nova's.

* * *

A few days later, in the early morning hours of August 2, the Wildstars were, indeed, staying on the _Argo_. Jonathan was staying on board with his Junior Space Cadet Corps unit, while his parents had come aboard the docked ship with Alex and Ariel to work with Sandor, Diane Henson (soon to be Sandor), and Kyle Kantalkos, one of the civilian engineers working on the _Argo's _main computer.

They had worked for most of the day. Finally, Nova and Derek tucked themselves in with Alex and Ariel in their cabin. They tried to settle down and rest. When that didn't work, Derek and Nova made love. Then, Nova was finally able to get some sleep.

Nova woke up beside Derek after her post-lovemaking nap in a strange mood.

Derek looked at the look in her eyes, and she looked confused and dazed.

"Nova, are you all right?"

"I just had the weirdest dream," Nova replied. "I mean, this dream is the dream that tops all weird dreams…"

"And…? Well, what happened in your dream?" Derek asked.

"I dreamt I was patrolling the ship during an intruder alert, Derek. I was walking around holding my Astro-Automatic, and I had on my helmet, gloves, and my gunbelt…"

"What was weird about that?" Derek asked.

"Well, except for a pair of backless high-heeled sandals on my bare feet…I didn't have anything else on! In this weird dream, I was patrolling the ship in the _nude_, Derek. And I found that to be pretty weird…and disturbing. I hope it doesn't portend any…"

They were both interrupted by a high-pitched cry from one of the baby carriers. "Alex!" Nova said. She sat up, threw off the covers, and tiptoed in her adorable real-life nakedness to his little portable crib. "What's wrong, honey? Hmmm?" Nova said as she picked her baby son up. In the heat, he wore nothing but his training pants. Nova brought him to the bunk, checking under his pants for wetness. "You are kind of wet…but do you want something else?" she said.

"Yeh," he said. "Sorry no potty…just stayed sleepy…"

"That's okay, sweetheart," Nova purred as she took off his training pants and cleaned him with a baby wipe while he giggled. A moment later, Alex got what he wanted; namely, his mother's breast and milk. Both she and Derek smiled at him as he nursed at his mother's bare breast; the naked baby boy and his naked mother were a gentle picture of contentment.

Ariel woke up and cried a moment later. Derek got her; he picked her up, checked her training pants, found they were also wet, so he removed them, walked her to go potty in the head of the Captain's cabin at her request, and then he came back and his naked little daughter in her mother's lap, where she found her mother's other breast and began to nurse.

Then, Derek pulled his wife into his lap, kissed her, and wordlessly and tenderly held most of his little family as his youngest children fed from their mother.

It was a scene of peace, happiness, and bliss.

Finally, Nova was done with the twins, who began to fall asleep again as they were given fresh training pants by their loving parents.

Then, with plenty of kisses, the two sleepy lttle ones were put back into bed.

"Now what do you want to do, Nova?" asked Derek.

"Let my breasts air out…and cuddle," Nova said. "Then, I'm sorry…I have to put on some clothes…"

"Why?" teased Derek.

Nova laughed. "Silly! I can't _really_ patrol the ship like this…naked…" Nova kissed him and said, "I'm perfectly happy to go naked in our house, our yard, around the pool, or on that beach on a hundred-degree plus day, but not the ship! I have to take a shower and get dressed…"

Derek kissed his wife and let her slip off to shower. Nova came back in from the head ten minutes later wrapped in a towel, which she threw off to dress.

Derek's eyes widened as he saw Nova pulling on a _very_ sexy lacy red pair of panties…then, she pulled on her usual gold shipboard uniform.

Then, while looking for her boots, Nova happened to notice a computer screen that was flashing…and beeping.

"What?" she said. "Derek…look at this..CRITICAL TIMING MALFUNCTION…" and it's in red.

"What is it?"

"A damn computer alert…it's been breached _again!"_ Nova sighed, pulling on her boots as the phone rang. She answered it.

"Yes? Diane? You've got it? Okay…you do the initial checkout….call me if you need assistance," Nova said. "Thanks."

"Well?" Derek said.

"Diane's got it. She'll call us if she needs help."

* * *

Diane was in a rushed mood, and she was a bit annoyed by the alert that the main computer had flashed on her screen in the cabin she was sharing for the night with Steve. The timing was the worst possible, coming just literally just moments from her stolen precious moments with Steve. After getting off the phone with Nova, Diane had just pulled back on her skirt and top, leaving her sandals behind because she had to slide down an access tube or two and climb down a people mover or two since not everything that led to that deck was working, and for Diane, it was easier to go down the ladder rungs barefoot in the warm ship than in her platforms. Diane didn't particularly see anything wrong with this, since when aboard ship, Nova also ran around barefoot often when she was not in full uniform. In fact, the two women had both been barefoot here in the computer room before dinner.

Diane thus ran into the _Argo's_ mainframe control room, her bare feet padding softly in the almost empty room at close to 2100 Hours. It was hot in there, but the deck felt nice and cool under her bare feet. Miss Henson knelt down near the nearest terminal to look at it. Nothing looked abnormal on the outside of the program, but she checked other aspects of the software. Finally, Diane found what she was looking for and whistled softly. "Now, what kind of Goddamn alert is this?" she said out loud as she knelt a summer-bare knee on the deck to look at a readout. It read:

LEVEL 14 ALERT: POSSIBLE TROJAN-LEVEL TWO WARP CORE PROGRAMMING HIVE.

"Now, how would a Trojan get into this level past the firewalls and blocking programs, let alone the extra level of security Nova and I put around it so we don't have so many maladjustments coming out of warp?"

Diane punched a few keys on the keyboard and came to an ugly conclusion as she read the firewall incursion reports. "It's not internal; it's EXTERNAL. Someone's been loading code into the system from outside. But who? And from _where_?" Henson said out loud. "This fucking ship. This fucking computer!" Diane was about to pick up a phone to call Steve down here at once when she heard a noise. Diane turned around like a scared rabbit.

Then, she heard a laugh, and saw a single male figure walking up. "Oh, it's just you, Kyle!" Diane said with a laugh as she saw the smiling, bearded face of the young man who was Frank Carmody's civilian engineering assistant from Rockwell. "And what is it that makes you wander around my Goddamned ship at just past nine at night, Mister Kantalkos? Trolling for girls? Or guys?" Diane said in a teasing tone while covering her breasts with one hand and her arm. She knew that her nipples would be showing through the thin material of her top, and…around him..it didn't feel right to let her body show. He wasn't Star Force; and he wasn't part of her extended family…who had seen both her and Nova in all sorts of states of dress and undress in the past few months. In fact, right now, he was giving off to Diane a vibe as if he was some kind of Space Marine; a Space Marine with sick thoughts on his mind.

Diane didn't know if Nova would catch this vibe, because she considered herself a bit more streetwise than the young, blond and rather high-strung genius who had her mind on thirty things at once and sometimes gave off to Diane the vibe that she had just consumed four cups of coffee but was filled with naivete. Diane was picking up a vibe of "this is someone who is bad fucking news", so she just glared at Kyle and backed away from him with a look of "don't fucking touch me" in her eyes. And Diane again realized there was something else. The firewall incursions. And one of them had been from here. She was sure she had just found the saboteur, and Diane knew what she'd have to do. Namely, she'd probably have to arrest him.

"Hey?" said Kyle. "Why do we look so hostile all of a sudden?"

Diane said, "Cut the bullshit, Kantalkos! This firewall shows four incursions in the past ten minutes. I've just picked up that the control node that one of them entered the system on is right here on this deck. The others are from off the ship through the comm system. And someone has stuck an unauthorized back door from Communications into the mainframe. And it sure wasn't me! Who was it, Kyle? Do you have a logical explanation for this shit?"

Kyle's voice seemed to change a little as he said, "Henson, have you ever wondered who sent that bug-ship into the Sol System a few weeks ago?"

"Some power or group called Spectra, and some so-called General of theirs named Ibn Zoltar." Diane looked around as Kyle got behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. She immediately slapped him and yelled "HANDS OFF, ASSHOLE!"

"Why not?" said Kyle as he shocked Diane by running a pair of fingers down her shoulders and then down over her sensitive breasts and nipples, covered only her her silken pink top, which was, again, not that unusual….she somehow remembered a barefoot Nova going up a Jeffries Tube the other day in a warm part of the ship in nothing but her cutoff shorts and a bandeau swimsuit top.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH ME!" Diane screamed. Then, she grabbed up a piece of conduit from off the deck and yelled, "Hands _up!_ Where I can see them! NOW!" she barked.

Kyle raised his hands and said, "Much obliged, ma'am, Now what are you doing?"

Diane refused to answer him, but just picked up the phone and banged on the cradle buttons four times fast while keeping her Astro-Automatic pointed at him. Then, she dialed in "*89". At that moment, the phone would be ringing in a special tone over in Steve's cabin. It was a panic tone meant to sound an Intruder Alert to the XO at once. When Sandor picked up, a message on his phone would let him know where to send help-or where to come himself.

"Ma'am, we still look so unfriendly," said Kyle as his tone of voice turned strange, hard, and furtive. "What's a pretty girl like you holding a pipe on me for? And where's your little skinny dirty-blond friend? You know? The _real_ pretty one? The one who gives off that message 'I want to be fucked so bad' with those big pretty eyes?"

"That's bullshit! Kneel down on the deck and put your hands on your head!" Diane barked. "NOW! For all I know, you're the one who has been sabotaging the Goddamn ship! And your behavior towards me just now was way out of bounds! Consider yourself under military arrest, _asshole_!" Diane came at him, about to do a rough pat-down of his person while holding the pipe on him.

Diane wished she had taken Nova's advice and put on a weapon after that incident with the drunken Space Marine this morning.

But, Kyle didn't let the next step happen.

Instead, he reached up and came at Diane with his right hand up.

As quick as lightning, Diane swung her weapon at him, meaning to hit him in the head with it. Her enemy moved with a speed that was utterly inhuman as he dodged the conduit, and he lashed up with a booted foot and kicked Diane in the wrist, knocking her pipe out of her hand. It hit the deck with a loud clatter.

Then, he shoved Diane down as hard as he could.

She hit the deck, falling in a most undignified position as her skirt hitched up and her bare legs went up as she tried to steady herself on her feet. Diane could tell, by the breeze…that her underpants were showing…the sexy lacy pair…intended only for Steve's eyes to see her in. She guessed what was on his mind then. She guessed the systems incursion had been a trick intended to get her or Nova down here…so he could rape one of them.

_You fucking sleaze,_ Diane thought with anger and hatred in her heart. _You're not a good man…you're a fucking dirtbag! Good thing we crew never had that damn strip poker game you were joking about…you pervert, not that elite outfits like the Star Force ever do that sort of thing! You're gonna be in so much trouble for this!_

He came at her again, and Diane was able to swing with a fist, connecting with his jaw. Then, she kicked him; it was meant to be right in his balls, but, instread, it just hit his upper thigh.

"Come here, little bitch!" Kyle said, laughing like crazy as Diane punched him again. She immediately cursed herself for not practicing more recently as he grabbed her again by her top and slapped her across the face while she tried to claw at his eyes. He held her against the bulkhead and said, "Little fucking spitfire, ain'tcha? Good…I love it when they fight me; you see…I've had lots of women…and even some men…usually tied up for special delivery for me," he said in a voice that was becoming flat and strange and didn't even sound like Kyle's anymore…it sounded…almost effeminate…almost clipped. "The Luminous One has been so good to me with his little tidbits…"

A moment later, Kyle shoved a cloth over her nose and mouth. _Chloroform, __damnit to hell!_ Diane thought angrily as she gagged at the sweet smell of the chemical and tried to rip the cloth away from her mouth while Kyle hit her open-handed in the side of the head, making one of her ears swell and ring with the impact. Diane Henson was very familiar with the stuff. She had made quite a bit of it in her time in some of her advanced inorganic chemistry classes at the Academy years ago. Diane knew that it was a compound of the trihalomethane family.

Nova had once told her in a conversation the two women had been having about chemistry that most developed nations had stopped using it as an anesthetic by the beginning of the 20th century because it had a nasty tendency to cause heart arrythmia that could be fatal in a hurry. Diane also remembered Nova and Doctor Sane saying that even though less-developed nations had still used the stuff, the James Conventions of 2065 that had ended the major part of the Unification Wars had banned its medical use entirely.

Her senses reeled as she suddenly felt as if her arms and legs were made of lead. Her eyes dulled as she felt her heart beginning to speed up. She still tried to fight Kyle, kicking at his knee very hard.

Diane tried to scream, but Kyle forced her to her knees. He began to shimmer weirdly (or was that an effect of the drug?) as his form twisted and melted. His black hair lengthened, and Diane thought she saw a glimpse of bizarre long blonde hair as she looked back over her shoulder at her tormentor and tried to kick him in the crotch with her other bare foot while she grasped the deck with her bare toes to gain leverage.

However, kicking wasn't that effective when your legs flailed all over the place like you were drunk because you were half knocked-out on chloroform! Suddenly, the lights went bright as an intruder alarm went off on the ship. The attack stopped for a moment as Diane drunkenly dove for her piece of conduit, but she was kicked in the arm abruptly by a red-booted foot as she fell on her bottom and she saw the form of a very different man as the lights faded.

* * *

"Who ARE you?" Diane whispered at the bizarre-looking cloaked figure in a strange violet and red uniform and grotesque mask trimmed in gold. A moment later, she remembered and said, "You're that Spectran bastard, aren't you?"

He had a cruel-looking mouth set off with red lipstick as he laughed a scornful laugh and said, "Ibn Zoltar of Spectra at your service, BITCH! In case you were wondering, I'm going to kill you as a strike at your government, little heroine! But you'll become my wife first! Just like I tried to do with your slutty blonde friend Nova the other day, Henson!"

"Not fucking likely…I'm about to be Stephen Sandor's wife…" Diane said in a pathetically slurred voice as she staggered up, and deceptively smiled at Zoltar as she stood to "hug" the beast, who must have been about six feet tall or so tall to her frame, which was just under six feet tall. Diane spat in the unmasked part of his face with all of the spit she could muster up from her dry mouth and then went to punch him in the head as she tried to rip his crazy mask off so she could use a Space Marine move to smash in the bones of his nose with the heel of her hand, thus shoving bone fragments up into his brain and killing him.

Zoltar countered by tripping her. Diane fell again, and she screamed as he nicked her cheek with his knife, which she almost got from him. However, he responded by ripping her top off. Diane's bare breasts tumbled out as she felt the shame of being exposed against her will by someone else.

Then, there was more chloroform as he made her eat the rag and breathe in more of the noxious fumes as Diane would remember the next three or four minutes or so for the rest of her life.

Half-unconscious, Diane was pulled up by her hair like a rag doll and thrown onto her stomach. She heard Zoltar's cape snapping as he came at her from behind. There was a rustling of cloth at his end as Diane felt utter nausea as she saw the part of him he had abruptly exposed….while he was laughing at her.

And he had an erection!

Diane was someone, who, like Nova, admired men. While Nova was more artistic about it, Diane just liked to see a good, strong man stripped down to the point where he was exposed. She thought Steve had a particulary nice body and a male member that was just gorgeous. She had also seen her former boyfriend Derek nude on the beach a few weeks ago, and had observed that since he had gotten older and filled out more, that her former rival and now friend Nova was a very lucky girl.

But, to Diane this Zoltar's…member…looked grotesque, like a parody of the human form. Next, as the world reeled, Diane felt her skirt and panties being torn from her in one rough motion, leaving her naked as he touched and stroked Diane's exposed and vulnerable genitals with gloves that felt slimy and greasy like something from a sewer. Henson remembered the times when her former boyfriend Randy Parmon had forced himself upon her like this, and she felt sick. Zoltar began to lewdly feel her breasts with his other hand as he laughed in her ear, "You're getting wet! You _like_ this, don't you?"

"I hate it…I hate you….." Diane whispered. Then,was forced onto her knees by his weight, and then, she was given more chloroform. It made her weaker than before…it made her woozy…

She tried to kick him but she missed his crotch by a mile.

It didn't matter much, as Zoltar pulled his naked captive into his lap….

And Diane, woozy, sick, and half-dead..felt utter revulsion as he went up inside her!

He grabbed her breasts with one hand as he put his other hand on her buttock and forced her onto her knees as he began to pump at her like some animal. Diane felt a lot of revulsion, but, surprsingly, little pain. In fact, there was physical pleasure…_unwanted physical pleasure_ as her womanhood, the amoral dumb tissue that it was, responded to him as if Sandor was inside her in the act of love.

It went on for maybe a minute…like a bad dream; a half-conscious nightmare….this parody of lovemaking, until the drug wore off enough for Diane to kick back and crab-walk forward; just enough to pull him out of her. But he grabbed her again, and whispered,"That's fine…I'm about to explode anyway, bitch!" Then, he did something utterly sick.

He took her again…but not in the usual place as he slid up inside her bottom. Diane screamed at the pain, but Zoltar held her down, as he….

_Oh, God, no,_ she thought. _Please…please…make this stop!_

Diane coughed and spat, and then she gritted her teeth in rage as she saw Zoltar touching himself again, and then felt him going back up inside her in the usual place…and grunting and shivering as he began to climax..and part of the….stuff went up inside her. Then, he pulled out, and something wet, hot and unwelcome sprayed against her bare bottom, her back, and her cheek all at once while she struggled against his thighs literally just centimeters away from being penetrated again by this freak. She made him jump back in a yell of pain by pivoting around and unexpectingly biting his partially bare thigh like an animal in her desperation to keep something of her own chastity. She hoped as she aimed for him that she could grab him and just castrate him with the next bite, but then she saw her conduit on the deck and felt for it.

A moment later, both rapist and victim jumped as they heard footsteps and heard the click of a weapon.

Zoltar pulled away from Diane and threw her to the deck, yelling, "YOU FUCKING BITCH!" at someone who was there as an Astro-Automatic suddenly went off.

The first shot just missed Zoltar and slammed into a computer console, creating sparks and fire as smoke suddenly began to fill the compartment.

Diane coughed, and as the smoke cleared for a moment, the first thing she saw was a helmeted, slender figure in gold and black, firing at Zoltar like a machine with her teeth gritted.

Diane had never been so glad to see Nova Wildstar in all of her life, as, with a scream behind her visor, Nova fired at Zoltar. Somehow, the first shot missed by centimeters as Zoltar moved his head, while the second shot lanced into his chest, making him gasp in rage.

"YOU ROTTEN BITCH!" Zoltar snarled. "I got this one, but you were the little whore I, Ibn Zoltar the Illustrious Warlord, wanted to rape tonight! Little fucking heroine!"

"Why don't you fucking try me, then Zoltar?" Nova snapped, using language Diane had never heard coming out of her mouth before. "Picking on someone who's unarmed? That is neither fair nor just! You damned bully! You make me SICK!"

Zoltar came at Nova like an enraged Colossus, drawing his weapon as he came at her at point-blank range. He fired once at Nova's head, but she managed to just dodge the energy bolt that would have blown her brains out. Instead, it only singed her helmet a little as she yelled, "STEVE! DEREK! WHERE'S MY BACKUP? HELP ME SURROUND HIM! DIANE'S HURT!"

Zoltar aimed again, at Nova's heart this time as he backed her against the bulkhead as she hed her weapon just as remorselessly upon him as Diane began to cry in the background….Diane was ready to grab for the conduit and to try charging him again, but then, she heard a sudden high voice as an electronic scream came.

"NO ONE HURTS MY NOVA!" burbled the high voice as IQ-9 came in on his treads as fast as lightning and as remorseless as Death.

Zoltar turned to face an enraged little red robot who reached out for him with his extensible arms. He was grabbed under the armpits and thrown head-first against the bulkhead, where he saw stars. IQ-9 pivoted about and came in like a killing machine….at the same time that Nova fired at Zoltar again, hitting him in the leg Behind Nova, another Astro-Automatic went off like a thunderclap, and Zoltar suddenly felt another bolt of energy ripping through his body near his heart, below the place where the woman had gotten him once in the chest with a lucky shot. It was hard to breathe all of a sudden, and he coughed up blood.

He heard a scream a moment later as Diane got up and hit him right in the balls with her conduit. Zoltar doubled over in pain and looked around the room at his enemies.

His enemies were the tall, naked woman he had just raped, a shorter, fully-dressed woman in gold and black holding her weapon on him as she ordered him to "Drop your weapon, NOW, Zoltar, Goddamn you!", the ugly little robot who was backing up the Lady in Gold as if he was her personal pet Doberman, and, last of all, the two men who came into the room.

One was a tall, relentless Colussus taller than even he was, in white and blue with his black hair cut in a severe crewcut and a controlled, cold rage on his face. He had a blaster out.

The other was of a younger, shorter man in white and red, with the wild hair of a Samurai, burning dark eyes, and his teeth gritted in an even more visible rage. His blaster was not only out but was still smoking. Zoltar took in the sight of the five of them, the advancing robot, the naked victim who had bit at and had hit at his sacred person and was still trying to fight like some little bitch wildcat, the bitchy little armed Valkyrie in gold and black who had wounded him the other day and had tonight interrupted the party and had just earned herself a one-way trip to his rape rooms and torture chambers on Spectra if he ever captured the little dynamo someday. There was also the young wild-haired man running for him with a smoking blaster, and the taller man with the crewcut who was advancing on him like Frankenstein's fabled Monster (and who sort of looked like him, too, to Zoltar) and he decided to cut his losses and run. Zoltar hit a button on his wrist, and he faded away in a bizarre spectrum of light as something like a vicious-looking birds' head swallowed him up and he was gone.

Diane looked back, and cried, "Nova, please help me! Please! Where's Steve? Where's Derek?"

Diane's eyes then focused on the newcomers as Nova knelt down to tend to her. Then, she saw that one of them was Steve, and she fell against him in the nude with a broken sob. Sandor swept her up in his arms and rocked her like a broken child as Diane heard his familiar soothing voice saying, "Diane, love… I'm here for you…I'm here for you…he's gone…you're safe…it'll be all right. What did he do…?"

"Raped her," Nova said as tears filled her eyes. "I caught him doing it to her and pumped several shots into the bastard myself before you guys showed up!"

"Steve, It was horrible! Yes….he raped me, all right? You won't ever want me again after this…I've been polluted…so….let me at Nova's gun!" Diane said in a broken voice.

"That's ridiculous," Sandor said bluntly as he knelt down beside Nova and gently kissed Diane. "Wildstar! Can I have your shirt? She should be covered up…"

Derek came over, and began to open his shirt, but Nova said…"Derek…no…it'll compromise the evidence…she's…all covered with his junk," she said with a whisper. "The poor woman's going to have to just go naked until I can examine her in Sickbay. Luckily, it's not that far. If this was me, I'd want you to keep me undressed if possible, too," Nova added.

"Where's Doctor Sane?" Derek whispered.

"He went home for the night with Mimi," Nova said. "I'm in sole charge of Sickbay tonight. Luckily, I'm just about qualified to handle something like this by myself. And it'd be better if she's examined by another woman, I think. Diane? I'll be looking at you myself," Nova added. "Can you stand up? I'll help you up…"

Diane nodded, but she didn't get very far even as Nova helped to pull her up with an audible grunt. A moment later, Sandor swept her up in his arms while Nova helped get her legs adjusted. Diane smiled a little through her tears, since Steve's and Nova's hands felt so good and clean on her.

Diane then began to cry again as Steve held her and rocked her back and forth in his arms. Steve looked at her…at what the enemy terrorist had done to her, and his teeth gritted in the sort of rage-filled look that Diane knew he got when he was about to kill someone. "Did he have…full intercourse…with you?" he whispered. "My God….he…shot his crap all over you…he…"

Diane closed her eyes and shook her head very hard. "Yes….darling…he forced me to…but I pulled him out of me…not very..welll…I'm…chlorod….but…this stuff…he has on me…it burns me…it hurts!"

"I know," said Sandor. "I'll help clean you and then I'll wash you myself when they're done. Let me carry you out of here…there's stuff all over, and broken glass all over the place," he said as adjusted her in his arms. Steve saw that she was not fighting him off, at least. Given what she had been through, the fact that she still trusted her fiancee' was at least a healthy sign. "Steve…your hands feel so good on me…his were…slimy.." Diane said. Then, looking at IQ-9, she said, "Thisll sound iraatinal, but send IQ and Nova and Derek outta here…make love to me right now…please…"

"Why, love?" Steve whispered as Diane shifted position and opened her legs; he saw then that her womanhood was glistening slightly with fresh excitement…she wanted him…and in the worst possible way. The thought of anyone seeing her like this, right now, naked, and vulnerable, made him….sick…

Nova looked at Diane with compassion in her eyes and said, "Diane….I know how you feel…but you have to be examined, first. Then, if you want to be alone with Stephen, I'll leave you two be in Sickbay, okay?"

"Okay," said Diane.

"IQ, get the hatch open," said Derek as Steve carried Diane naked to Sickbay while she shut her eyes, just drowning in the feel of his hands on her body…they were clean, warm…comforting.

She was carried like that to Sickbay, right in his arms.

* * *

Diane cried out, "Nova, it's cold! So cold!" as her stethoscope was on her bare breasts a few minutes later in Sickbay as she tried to gently listen for her heartbeat while palpating her breasts and ribs for damage as Diane knelt on the examining table. Nova had changed into one of her Medical tunics and sandals with a lab coat on over everything while talking with Derek,

"I know," Nova said gently. "You'll feel weird for a while. The stimulant drug I injected you with is taking effect and bringing you out from under that chloroform. I have to make some notes on my recorder. Okay?"

Diane nodded dully while Nova said into a digital recorder, "Subject is in good health; Caucasian. Height, from top of head to soles of feet, 177.8 centimeters, or 70 inches old measure. Weight, 64.41 kilograms or 142 pounds old measure. Subject was found in the nude. Subject's skin partially covered with small amounts of blood and copious amounts of what appears to be male ejaculate. Ejaculate unusually thick and slightly alkaline in Ph test…subject.."

Diane screamed, "I'm not a fucking subject, Nova! I'm a human being named Diane Catherine Henson! Okay?"

"Diane, you know the protocol in sexual assault exams involving aliens," said Nova quietly as she paused the recorder. "In fact, you and Sandor helped Doctor Sane and I write it, remember?"

Steve, who was present, stroked Diane's bottom as gently as possible. Diane smiled a little…he was reassuring…just by his presence. Nova looked at him and said, "Sandor, we have enough samples and photographs from her buttocks now. You can begin washing her off. Just leave her rectal and genital areas unwashed for now. We still need to examine those. We'll be very gentle, Diane…don't worry…"

Diane nodded, not being able to stop the tears as she heard water being sloshed around. Then, there was the gentle feel of a warm sponge on her bare bottom, and she began to cry softly as Stephen washed her. She had not only insisted that he be here for everything…per her request, he had not taken his hands off of her since she had arrived here like this, in front of a concerned group of Derek, IQ-9, Nurse Tasha Cleveland, who got Nova some supplies and left, and the civilian contractor Frank Carmody. Derek and Carmody had asked Diane a few questions about the intruder and the attack, and she had answered before Derek left with Carmody. Then, some blood had to be drawn. Diane was checked for possible sexually transmitted diseases, and Nova was relieved when she checked the computer scanners a few minutes later after taking the Petri dish out and she saw that the standard tests all had come through negative.

When Stephen washed most of the semen off of her, he helped Nova to get Diane up, and poor Diane shivered a little as she knelt there completely naked. She didn't know it yet…but because of her feelings of being unclean from the rape, she would go naked for nearly the next two days, washing herself as often as possible…or allowing herself to be washed by her fiancee'. "Lie on your stomach, now, Diane…and relax your legs…" Nova said softly. "This part will hurt. I know from lots of personal experience of being on the receiving end of these gynecological instruments. I'll be very gentle with you…."

Diane did so, sobbing as she heard Nova pulling on a latex glove. Then, Tasha Cleveland came back in and spread Diane's buttocks slightly and gently as Nova put her hands on her…and…

It took forty-five minutes. Diane endured swabs, and a careful exam, first of her rectum, and then, on her back, of her center. She squeezed Steve's hand hard as the freezing cold tools went on her body there…. curling her toes in shame and discomfort as Nova looked up her, and used a swab. "Positive on semen traces here in the outer area," she said quietly. She looked at Diane and said, "Evidence of two acts of penetration…one shallow…maybe an hour or two ago…the other deep, and about three hours old…more semen…Diane, you said he didn't…?"

Diane shook her head. "No! I hate to say it…but he came inside me and then pulled right out. The other stuff was from Steve and I. I…we had intercourse three hours ago…the semen deep up in there would be his…I think?"

"Possibly," Nova said. "And don't look so ashamed when you talk about you and Steve making love. Derek and I were in bed with each other three hours ago, too." Nova then handed the swab to Cleveland. "Tasha, test this right away! Check this against Sandor's new known DNA profile since he was operated on," Nova snapped as she handed Cleveland some swabs.

"Yes, ma'am," she said. After taking some slides and putting them in the analysis scanner, Cleveland got a report as she looked through the small electron microscope attached to the unit. "First swab is the Commander's seminal fluid, all right, it is a perfect match. That seems to match about seventy percent of the semen found inside Diane. The second swab is just…weird. Unknown profile, and evidence of gene-splicing at the basic level. The profile is blurred, but the being who generated this…stuff…is definitely an alien, certainly a mutant, and may be a hermaphrodite…it's sure not your fiancee', ma'am. We're using him as a control; he's a normal human. "

The scientist in Nova popped up and she said, "Hermaphrodite? Now, that sounds…interesting. Tasha, please make sure that's preserved. At some point, I want to have a better look at that stuff!"

Diane added, "I also have to improve my fighting technique, Steve. He got me as if I was a little girl or something like that. Nova, would you train me?"

"Sure," Nova said "I need to get my black belt, Derek, and I have to get better in _shotokan_ karate, too. I have to improve!"

"It's fine, Nova, Diane…we can work on that later on, whenever you feel up to it…," Sandor said.

Nova then said to Diane, "Some of his stuff…is up there, too, near your cervix…along with Steve's…Diane, I hate to tell you this, but there is a possibility, however remote, of pregnancy, either from Steve…or from…."

"Ibn Zoltar," Diane said. "Let's just call the Goddamn Freak Zoltar from now on," she added. "His genitals looked larger than the normal human's…wider, too…"

"I see," said Nova. "There is that chance you'll end up pregnant from him. We won't know for a few days…certainly not until after the wedding on Saturday and the honeymoon….Of course, the possibility is much greater that it would be from Steve…if it even happens…"

"I knew of that…it's not such an unpleasant idea," Diane said as she smiled weakly at her fiancee. "In fact, it's still not such a bad idea…Nova…he didn't get his…thing up me for long…I wouldn't let him…I fought him like a wildcat but it wasn't good enough!"

"Nova, Diane, you both know you're not supposed to fight off a potential rapist like that," said Tasha Cleveland. "It could have put your life in danger….I…"

"Tasha, you're not _me_!" Diane snapped. She lay back her head and laughed a grim laugh. "Thank God that Zoltar is a lousy rapist…all I got was felt up, got screwed for maybe thirty seconds… and got some junky juice of his on my butt, up my ass, and up my privates…and thank Heavens, the party got interrupted….!" Diane shook her head, looked at Sandor, and frankly said, "Steve, if I want to bear anyone's child, I'd much rather have it be yours," she said as she brushed Steve's leg with her toes. "I can, Nova…right?"

"Yes, but because that alien semen was alkaline, I want to check you again in twelve hours and then in twenty-four hours on your back, bottom, and private regions for evidence of burns. You said that you were feeling tingling sensations on your buttocks and in your rectum…I gave you a suppository for the irritation there," said Nova as she finished taking samples from Diane. "I'd like to admit you, Diane," Nova said, "And keep you in just a light hospital gown, or…"

"Thanks, Nova. But skip the gown. I'm more comfortable like this right now," she said. "And just getting air to my bottom and womanhood would help, don't you agree? And it's hot, so the best way to solve that problem is for me to just run around naked. Right?"

Nova bit her lip, "I guess…well…I guess I'd choose to go naked, too, if I were in your situation. All right, then. I know where you live….I'll come over and make a house call tomorrow….how's that? Steve, you can have my lab coat," Nova said as she took her own lab coat off her back after taking some things out of the pockets. "Wrap her in this so she'll at least leave the ship with something on her. I'll see you tomorrow, Diane…okay?"

"Sounds good, Nova," Diane said. They embraced and then Nova helped put her lab coat on Diane.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED….**


	2. Chapter 2

**THE FIRE IN THEIR EYES**

**A VERY Dark Star Blazers fanfic (Rating: Heavy R): THIS TALE IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!**

**PART TWO: REVELATIONS**

**By Frederick P. "Freddo" Kopetz**

**Thanks to "Yuki Wildstar," Gail Kopetz, and Ami Meitsu for ideas contributed to this chapter**

**Thanks to SAMANTHA NOCERA (aka Steel Hyaena) for ideas contributed to this chapter.**

* * *

**I. GUILT….CONTINUED**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**Derek and Nova Wildstar's Quarters**

**Tuesday August 2, 2208**

**0402 Hours**

* * *

Stephen Sandor had taken poor Diane off the ship…he was taking her home.

In the meantime, in the Captain's Quarters, Nova had slipped back up there with Derek…to check on the babies…and have a good cry after remembering everything that had happened to Diane…

…and everything that had happened to herself just a few days ago.

Nova was holding Ariel as she cried in Derek's arms. "Why Mommy cry?" Ariel asked.

"Honey, it's a good thing you're too little to know about this, yet," Nova sobbed. "A very, _very_ bad man tried to hurt Mommy the other day by…trying to do grown-up things that are very nice when Daddy does them to Mommy…because Mommy lets Daddy do these things to her…but are very bad when someone tries to make Mommy do them to…another man!" Nova said, breaking out in a fresh wave of crying as Ariel reached at Nova's breast. She shivered a little at the touch, and Derek said, "Nova, honey, maybe you should give her a bottle now?"

""No, Derek…I won't let some SICK person stop me from caring for our children!" Nova snapped with rage in her eyes. "Derek, please…strip me…she's hungry…"

"Should I…be careful?" Derek said as he undid the zipper on the back of Nova's dress.

"If it means 'treat me like cut glass', no!" Nova snapped. "You are my husband, Derek, and _you_ didn't do anything to me!" Nova said as Derek eased her out of her dress and pulled it over her head. Then, she got Derek to undo her bra and toss it aside as she sat in her husband's lap on the bunk, struggling with her sandals and then her panties as Derek then helped her. When she was finished, Nova was nude in her husband's lap, closing her eyes softly as she gave Ariel her breast.

Ariel then paused, and said, "Did bad man try to hurt Mommy again? Did bad man try to rip off Mommy's clothes?"

"No, dear," Nova said as tears ran down her cheeks. "The bad man did all of that to one of Mommy's friends, though. He tried to really hurt Auntie Diane…and he did hurt her. When Mommy left Auntie Diane, she was very sad. We're going to Auntie Diane's wedding on Saturday…providing she doesn't postpone it or call it off…"

"Me not like it when bad men try to hurt Mommy. Mommy pretty, Daddy?"

"Yes, Mommy is very pretty," Derek agreed as he stroked Nova's skin along with Ariel. "Daddy gets very upset when bad men try to hurt Mommy…or Mommy's friends…"

"Bad men drop dead!" screeched Ariel.

"That's right," Nova cooed. "Mommy wishes she could kill the bad men…"

Ariel pulled off Nova's breast. Her father helped burp her, and then, he took her and tucked her in after kissing Nova. At the same time, Nova let her legs dangle over the bunk, and raised her arms and stretched in the nude and then she gave Derek a shy, gamine smile in a way that unaccountably drove Derek mad with a sudden frank wave of sexual desire that he didn't even know he should have for her right now in this vulnerable state. He had failed her by not being with her days ago; he had almost let her be raped, and she still _wanted _him? She still loved him?

She looked at Ariel. "The little angel's asleep…so is Alex…"

"I know," Derek said. Nova then smiled at her Derek, motioned him over, and kissed him as he put his hands on her bare bottom, and, she whispered. "Derek?"

"Yes?"

"Make love to me. NOW!"

Derek kissed Nova's cheek, and then, he went down to her stomach….as he knelt on the deck, he found her most initimate area, and watched Nova opening her legs to him in a gesture of love and trust.

Then, he began to pleasure her, ever so gently with his mouth, as her eyes closed, and her toes flexed up with pleasure. "Yes," she sighed. "Derek…oh…yes…"

Several minutes of pleasure passed, and then, Nova began to undo Derek's pants as he came up to kiss her nose, and she whispered, "Darling, when you open your pants…just throw me back on the bunk, and then…"

"Yes?" Derek said.

They both screeched and abruptly got out of the mood when they heard someone yelling, "Commodore, sir!" as an unknown Space Marine just barged into their cabin. Derek pulled back, and Nova quickly covered her crotch with her hands (she had nothing else to clothe herself with, so the rest of her body just went naked).

"Would you get _out of h_ere, Sergeant Quatermass?" snapped Wildstar. "As you can see, uh…Commander Wildstar is in a very vulnerable state…can't you fucking see she's getting ready for bed?"

"Sir, ma'am….I'm sorry! But we just found a mutilated corpse on the ship in our perimeter patrol. Kyle Kantalkos, sir. That civilian contractor. He's dead. He was found decapitated, castrated, and we think he was anally raped, as well….we…there was blood everywhere…."

Nova suddenly and unaccountably retched, and she unexpectedly threw up all over herself, the bunk, and the deck. "Poor guy!" she said through a half-cough, half sob. "I'm going to be there when they autopsy him…I…"

"Nova, you shouldn't," said Derek.

"And why not?" she snapped. "I still have a _mind_; I'm trained in forensic pathology, and I was the lucky one tonight! I'm alive and mostly intact…, okay? And I need a good bath! If you are done, Sergeant, would you please leave and continue your investigation elsewhere? You do NOT barge into a married couple's room like that! That does not go for Derek! I don't want him to leave. He needs to give me a bath…and some…other things…and right now! You do not want to know what you just interrupted!" Nova said with a bluntness and frankness that very few of them except Derek had ever heard from her.

Sergeant Quatermass nodded, but he just leered at them and said, "Aye, aye, ma'am! See you later, Commodore, you lucky.."

"I SAID GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE…I WAS ABOUT TO SLEEP WITH THE MAN I LOVE!" Nova screamed as she picked up a jar of cold cream and threw it at Quatermass. "OR DO ALL OF YOU SPACE MARINES HAVE YOUR OWN RAPE FIELD MANUAL LIKE STOVALL AND THAT SLEAZEBAG WHO TRIED TO RAPE ME ON WEDNESDAY? BEAT IT AND LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE WITH MY HUSBAND!"

Then, Nova just curled herself into a ball and began to cry her eyes out as Derek just held her.

As Derek held Nova, he said, "Shhhhh….just cry it out…I'll find somethihg light to put on you, and then I'll take us all home in a few minutes…I think we can sleep better there…"

* * *

Out in the passage, Quatermass looked at the closed hatch and muttered, "Goddamn, that little heroine Nova is a _bitch_!"

"What did ya say?" said Chris Eager as he wheeled around and grabbed the Sergeant.

"I said…Nova's sure acting like a…bitch…just because I interrupted her lovey-dovey session with the Captain to give them some news!"

"You never say that word about her again!" Eager, who was now acting as the Officer of the Deck, roared as he threw Quatermass up against the bulkhead by his shirt. "How else do ya expect a vulnerable mother of three who just turned thirty to react when someone tries ta rape her? HUH? My Lisa would be goin' bugs if someone tried to rape her! And that's all ah need to know because I can see the Skipper later! And if it wasn't for Nova, several times over, the human race wouldn't even be here right now! I never want ta hear another damn word about "lucky" from you again…"

"SHE said she was lucky…hell, she probably loved it!" laughed the Marine. "Most women like the idea of being raped by some exotic Arab Prince or something! They fantasize about it! You damn well know that, sir!"

Eager hauled off and punched him in the ear. "Idiot! She said she was lucky to be alive! That woman, to everyone in the First and Second Star Forces…is like everyone's sister…or everyone's mom. She is the one girl on this ship we all love ta death and respect! You say bullshit like that again around this crew, and you'll be lucky if ya survive for ten minutes, because the guys and even the gals will tear you apart! Got that?"

Quatermass nodded.

Eager shoved him against the bulkhead again and said, "Now, get back to your post, Sergeant…and get out of my sight! I'm the OOD here, and obviously, I'm in command right now. Got it? Get out of here and leave the Skipper and Nova alone!"

"Yessir," said Quatermass with rage on his face. He glared at Eager, saluted, and took off.

* * *

In the meantime, Astrena of Pellias awoke in the Imperial Palace on Gamilon next to Desslok.

She was moaning, and rubbing her head.

Desslok awoke, clad in the light black leathern outfit he had worn to bed that night, and he looked at Astrena, who had slept naked, and he asked her, "What is troubling you so?"

"I dreamed of Aliscea again, and of Earth. Ekogaru is arising again. He's…up to something."

"You're sensing him, of course," Desslok said, not a question, but a bare statement of fact. He was coming to know Astrena better, and his respect of her insight and abilities were growing.

Astrena nodded. "The sad thing is that, on Earth, Aliscea's star, as I told you some months ago, is, as you know, slowly fading. I believe it will take years, but she is beginning to fade, and I know, more and more, that she will not be the one to destroy Ekogaru, whose dark star is again rising."

"Who will be the one to destroy Ekogaru?" Desslok said. "You?"

"No, but I will aid in his passing…."

"You said it will not be Aliscea….is there another mighty Pellian psychic warrior of whom we have yet to learn?" Desslok said. "You said that many millions of your people have survived out there in deep space…."

"Yes and no," Astrena said.

"Your answer confuses me," Desslok said.

"It confuses me, as well, but permit me to explain, Desslok," Astrena said. "First, I must tell you what we have recently learned of Ekogaru. The truth we have learned of him. We always believed he was a Rikashan…_we_, meaning myself, Aliscea, Starsha, Sasha, and Trelaina, as well as the other long-gone Ladies, Elders, Adepts, Sorceresses, Prophets, High Priests, Prophetesses, and Judges of the Pellian people and those who preceded us. Ekogaru arose on Rikasha, but he was not born there as we thought."

"Where was he born?" Desslok said as he poured himself a goblet of his favorite wine.

Having poured the wine, he sat down in a chair near the bed as Astrena sat on the bed and continued to speak. His hair was a bit messier than usual, but he was intrigued by Astrena's strange tale.

"Earth," said Astrena, and the answer shocked him. "Yet, he is not a mere Earthling. He holds in himself major traces of the blood of Iscandar and the blood of both the Pellian people and our ancestors. You know, he is Darkness. He is a Dark Lord. _The_ Dark Lord. And the day will come, unless we can somehow stop it, which I doubt, when he will completely take a body, kill all spiritual traces of the the Earthling who inhabited that body, and he will walk the Earth and the Cosmos again as a Living Man, more rapidly becoming a cyborg than before."

Astrena paused, and then went on as she said, "Yet, if he completely makes himself into a machine, which may be within his capabilities…I pray it is not…he will become both immortal and invincible. In that event, no one but perhaps the Almighty Himself, as we see Him, will be able to stop him. Yet, I foresee that an agent is being raised up to succeed to Aliscea's place as her successor. The Elders of Pellias have awaited her coming for centuries. She will be, we think, the last of her line charged with the task of opposing Ekogaru and all he represents, because she will be the last hope remaining in the mortal world to destroy him."

"Who is she?" Desslok said.

"The Wise of Pellias call her "The White Orchid". We have not understood her, and we have sometimes treated her badly, like the youngest child, and the least of us, yet, when she comes into her own, and a day comes when she comes to me, I will kiss her feet and ask her what she requires of me."

"Do you know who she is? Has she been born yet?" Desslok asked, intruiged by this strange tale. For some reason, a Terran piece of classical music, by Johann Sebastian Bach, came unbidden to his mind…a piece called _The Little Fugue in G Minor_, a yearning, yet powerful piece of piano music that the Leader had always associated with a one who was a dear friend of his ever since they day they had met.

"Yes, she lives now," said Astrena. "But, she is sort of like a seed grain or an embryo spiritually. There is a great and terrible potential that lies asleep in this woman..or almost asleep…she has shown occassional flashes of this insight. She is, in a sense, Ekogaru's spiritual opposite…his Nemesis. The Light against his Shadow. She is one of a very few living on Earth with some of the blood of Iscandar in her…and, I believe, one of the few other than the Dark Lord himself with Terran, Iscandarian, _and_ Pellian blood in her veins. In fact, we now believe she and Ekogaru shared the same Pellian ancestor somewhere in the tangled lines of their descent." Astrena got up and flipped back her hair a bit. She was shivering slightly, but, right now, due to the energies flowing through her, she preferred to remain naked, and she gently refused a robe Desslok offered to toss over her shoulders.

Astrena then went to a bookshelf she and Desslok shared in his apartments in the Imperial Palace on Gamilon and she pulled down a dark red book, with Pellian characters on the front. It was locked with a small lock that Astrema opened by touching it. "This is psychically locked," she said. "There are only two people in the Cosmos capable of opening this lock and this book; myself…..and the White Orchid. This book of lore is actually destined for _her_, but I am charged with holding it in trust for her until the day when she comes into her own and then appears here and demands it of me. But I can show you some of it, Desslok."

Astrena touched a jewel, which glowed a subdued gold after a time, and a slow click came. Then, and the strap holding the book closed quietly popped open. Astrena kissed the book, and then laid it open to two _very_ complex charts….written in strange scripts resembling runes used by Terran fantasy writers, a very ornate form of something that looked like Hebrew, and, in small, fine letters, Terran Standard English.

Desslok could barely read the charts, even with his acute vision, since the work was so fine. "What are these?" he said. "They look like…genalogical charts? Or family lines?"

Astrena nodded. "This page is Ekogaru's chart. It goes back 3500 Terran Years. As you see, he did actually leave descendants on Pellias and on Rikasha, so he had, and has, family there, as well as on Earth. The one below it is the family line of the White Orchid. The last few names on her chart were just filled in in my lifetime, and the last name, there," said Astrena as she covered over a few names with her hand and made sure the last one was covered…"That last name just became known to Aliscea and I only in the past few weeks, literally. It appears Trelaina has known it for years…"

"Trelaina?" said Desslok. "I thought she was dead?"

"We speak with her now and again…she is _beyond_ life and death now, so to speak," Astrena said, pushing some of her long hair out of her eyes. "There will come a day when she will walk alive again, not long before the White Orchid is revealed from out of the ashes. For to come into her own, the White Orchid will experience tremendous pain, grief, and suffering in her life, and will actually pass through the Fire and Water of defeat and the next world before arising, literally, off a funeral slab regenerated and reborn like the Phoenix of Terran legend," Astrena said. "Desslok, Aliscea knows. So does Trelaina, and, so does, as of late, Queen Starsha. One Terran sort of knows, even though he has seen only shadows of the reality that this person's life story involves. She must not be told, yet, Desslok. Nor must the Earth Government. If the Earth Government knows, I prophecy this information would get right to the ears of Ekogaru. Do I have your pledge of secrecy, Desslok?" Astrena asked, seriously.

"You do," said Desslok.

Astrena uncovered the name.

Desslok spent his time reading the chart. "Her descent goes back to, literally, ancient times, on Earth. The Tribe of Ephraim? Hmmm..interesting. One named 'Deborah' is an ancestor? Interesting…." Desslok read on, lost in a complex welter of names. It became rather confusing after a while…other tribes and nations were involved in the bloodline, as well as a mysterious figure known as "The Widow's Son". He stopped on one. "Queen Talia of Iscandar? The Warrior Queen _herself_? Starsha said she left no descendants…"

"Starsha believes Talia is the one of her ancestors she most closely resembles in looks and demeanor, even though she also resembles one other Iscandarian," said Astrena as Desslok read on. "Part of the Japanese Imperial Line?"

"She's maybe sixtieth in line to inherit the Imperial Throne," said Astrena. "The Samurai blood is more important…"

Desslok read on, and his name followed an ancestral branch and he almost recoiled when he saw some of the names. "COMETINE?" he said.

"Through the Pellian side….and have a look," Astrena said with some amusement as she pointed at a name, The names coming off that line were left untranslated into Terran, for Astrena knew Desslok did not need to know this fact yet! Yet, Astrena knew she would have the names translated when the White Orchid actually received the book. By then, _she'll already know who she really is, _thought Astrena. Desslok just looked and said, "Invidia is NOT a member of this woman's family tree! And isn't she _dead_?"

"I will not comment here," said Astrena with a small smile. Yet, she knew the truth about Invidia, and thought, _Katrina will come to discover she has a very distant and dear cousin, many times removed, through the Pellian side of their complex common ancestry… _

Desslok almost grew bored looking at names. Some were Terran; French, Japanese, some British names. Desslok figured out that the late Princess Diana and Sir Paul McCartney were distant relations on this person's British side of her ancestry. At least one old American President was also a distant relation, as the names narrowed down to a few confusing threads; some of the family names he saw were Chernak, DuPres…others….

The last few were hauntingly familiar; Desslok had read them, somewhere. _Where? Perhaps a very old Intelligence report on some Earthling? _Desslok thought.

Desslok's eyes wandered to another line of names below the last few. "These names are odd…mostly Japanese?"

"The ancestry, to an extent, of her husband. Yes, she is married. He is a more direct descendant of Samurai than she is…."

Desslok's eyes focused on the last group of names…cousins? Siblings?

One name made him snarl…it was black, and of evil omen, even to him.

Then, his eyes fell on the name of the White Orchid, written in several tongues, in red and gold, with a line of opposition heading right to Ekogaru. An Eight-Pointed Star of silver was near the name.

Desslok's eyes went wide. Then, he said, evenly, "Astrena, you have made a mistake. This is utter madness! She is _not_ this person. She…"

"She is, Desslok. She is…." Astrena said with deep, deep conviction. "He has to protect her," she said, pointing at the name of her husband. "And you have to protect her. You know who she is, and I know that you know in your heart of hearts that I am right and that this genaology does not lie. I know you do. You once told me there was a deep mystery about this woman you could never figure out….from the dramatic day you first met her…."

"How does General Stone play into this?" said Desslok as he looked at a dotted line.

"He is not a blood relation….but another one of the dark stars surrounding the Light of this person. Her mother…no…I need not get into that now. Lies," said Astrena as she slammed shut the book. "Just lies…"

"What sort of lies?" Desslok said.

"There is a dark rumor going about in the upper echelons of the Earth Government that…that the White Orchid is someone else's bastard daughter," said Astrena. "It is a lie, though…."

Desslok came over to the bed and sat next to Astrena. He pulled her close and kissed her hard.

"And that is for?" said Astrena.

"Because I love you and desire you," Desslok said. He undid his leathers and smiled as he pulled his spouse onto his lap and he began to touch her breasts. Astrena bgean to sigh as she threw back her head…feeling hot, melting pleasure as he touched her unclothed stomach with a free hand, and his touch went lower, and then lower, down to her delicate womanhood.

Astrena found herself very glad she had not clothed her nakedness in a robe after all when Desslok pulled him further into his lap, and began to tenderly take her as he made love to her….

* * *

**II. LOVE AND PAIN**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Derek and Nova Wildstar's Home**

**Tuesday August 2, 2208**

**0552 Hours**

* * *

It was the early morning on Earth in the Tokyo Megalopolis as the sun rose on the second of August.

Nova Wildstar had a hard time sleeping, even after Derek had taken her home, so she had gotten up, clad in only her skin, and she had left Derek a note that she had taken little Ariel into one of their guest bedrooms to feed her.

Nova had been having strange, disturbing dreams.

They were hellish dreams…dreams of torture, rape, and violent death, often dying naked in front of others who laughed at her.

When Derek had awakened (a bit late) at 0600, clad in only his fundoshi, he found the note, and found Nova sleeping peacefully naked on the bed with an equally naked little Ariel on her bare chest. Ariel was asleep, but a little hand still grasped her mother's breast in her sleep.

Derek smiled at his wife, and he kissed Nova tenderly awake with a kiss on her forehead after he pushed aside some of her hair. Nova awoke and smiled at Derek. "Morning, dear," she murmured. "Found my note?"

"I sure did…you must have fallen asleep in here…Ariel looks so sweet," said Derek as he smiled at and stroked his little daughter, who lay sleeping with her little bottom up in the air. Ariel coughed a little and woke up, kissing her Daddy when she saw him, and then she kissed her Mommy. "Morning, Daddy..Mommy. Need potty!" she said with a yawn.

Derek smiled at her and said, "Should Daddy take you to go potty, or Mommy?"

"Mommy will take you," Nova said in a sleepy voice. "Then Mommy will take Ariel back to her crib…."

Ariel yawned and said, "Daddy, when do I get big girl's bed?"

"Soon, honey," Derek said as he tousled Ariel's hair while Nova got up to walk her little girl to the bathroom. Before leaving the room, Nova whispered in Derek's ear, "I'll be checking on Alex, too. "Derek, take your fundoshi off and lay here and wait for me?" She kissed him and took off.

Derek stripped, and he lay there thinking of his beautiful naked wife prancing around the house. _That's maybe the only I like about this summer and this thing with the Sun_, Derek thought with a smile. _The hot weather and two nursing babies mean that Nova's usual outfit in the house is now often nothing at all. And Aliscea…Sasha..even Katrina think it's so cute when she runs around like that…and so do I…_Derek thought as he saw his body responding to the thought of Nova running around the warm house in only her naked skin. Then, memories of the near-rape returned to him, and he gritted his teeth as he thought, _Who the hell would even think of hurting such a sweet young woman like that? Thank God Nova can take care of herself and fight off animals like that…._

Nova came back in the room, wiggling her toes on the floor as she yawned. She smiled at Derek and said, "Forget the rabbit in your pocket part. You have no pockets right now. And I can sure tell you're happy to see me. Alex and Ariel are in sleepyland. So is Jonathan, the sweetheart. I think we're alone now, Derek…"

"Do you want to sleep?" Derek teased.

Nova crawled into bed beside him and bopped her husband with a pillow. "No, Derek." She smiled at him with a sexy light in her eyes. She climbed over her husband and smiled at him as she tenderly grasped his exposed manhood. Nova shut her eyes and kissed Derek as she began to intimately touch him, playing with him with deep tenderness as she opened her legs to him, not at all unhappy when he smiled at her, finding her genitals and beginning to tenderly touch them, making Nova shiver with pleasure as she lay down slowly on top of him, kissing him as she moaned softly, and he returned the moans with sighs of his own as she tenderly fondled him while he played with her breasts with one hand and her center with the other hand. "How did you get your motor going so fast?" Derek whispered.

Nova said, "After I made sure the kids were asleep, before I came in here, I leaned against the wall, thought of you, and spent about four or five minutes playing with myself…._.mmmmm_….that does the trick much of the time…"

Nova grabbed Derek, and the lovers did a somersault where she ended up on the bottom, and Derek ended up on top. They kissed, touched, and moaned as Derek happily took her. With all of the attention, Nova hit her climax maybe three minutes after Derek went up inside her, and she gasped and sang happily, putting her legs and curling her toes as she put her arms around her husband and whispered, "More, Derek…God…yes…more…more….keep that up…yes…yes…yes!" she said as she shut her eyes and raked Derek's back.

However, even as the naked lovers rolled in utter joy on the bed, lost in each other as they made love, the door to the room quietly opened, and a small red robot appeared, his lights flashing softly.

It was IQ-9! He and Doctor Sane had just arrived at the house a few minutes ago. When there was no answer at the doorbell, Doctor Sane used the spare key Nova had given him to let himself in. He sent IQ to look for them while he poured himself some early morning sake' care of Nova's liquor cabinet! Of course, Derek and Nova had not heard the doorbell. Who would notice a doorbell, up here on the second floor, especially in a closed guest room occupied only by a married couple in the throes of an early morning session of intimate delight?

Derek was fixated upon his dear Nova's face as he kissed her and watched her expressions as he continued to take her and she sighed, moaned, and cried, "Derek…please…don't stop…please…don't I…ohhhhhh…"

IQ began to record what he could see (and hear) of the proceedings as he quietly turned around and slipped away from the bedroom just as the lovers grew closer and closer to a beautiful climax.

Derek exploded a moment later, feeling as if Nova had transported him to another world.

Nova cried out in a similar fashion a moment later.

Finally, they lay there stroking each other as Derek asked Nova. "How did I make you feel this morning?"

"Wonderful," Nova said as she kissed him. "Stay here, Derek. I need to take a shower and put on a yutaka. I'll bring yours from the bedroom…the dark one. Okay?"

Derek kissed his wife and said, "Okay…I'll go take my shower in the bathroom at this end of the hall. Love you!"

"Love you too," Nova said. She kissed Derek and took off, unaware that IQ-9 was now in a hall closet, busily recording a nice view of her bare bottom as she briskly walked down the hall.

Nova took her shower, washing off the musky smells of her early-morning lovemaking with Derek, and wondering if she should cook breakfast for Derek in a towel…or only an apron…or just a pajama top, or one of his shirts…or in the nude (all of which she loved to surprise him with before a day of work), but she then just slipped into a green-patterned bath kimono, closed with a red sash, as she put in a pair of stud earrings.

Derek greeted her in the bathroom of their master bedroom, kissing her shoulder before she fully closed up her kimono.

"You were so sweet there in that bed, Nova, dear," said Derek.

"So were you," Nova replied. She kissed Derek back and then said, "I think I hear someone downstairs!" Nova kicked on a new pair of open-toed house slippers, and she ran downstairs to find Doctor Sane and IQ-9 in the living room.

"How did you two get in here?" Nova asked.

"I used the key," said Doctor Sane. "Nova, this is just a reminder….we have to go and see Diane Henson at her house soon. The house call?"

"Yes, I remember that," Nova sighed, as she saw Derek coming downstairs in his dark blue open house slippers and she thought, _I promised Diane that I'd be the only one there. She'd better not be too upset with you coming with me, Doctor!_

Nova looked at Doctor Sane and said, "Doctor, Diane asked me to see her on my own…which I intend to do when I get dressed…"

"And what were you doing running around in just your robe, Nova? Ha ha!" said IQ-9.

Nova slapped him and said, "You are so obnboxious at times, IQ! Derek, isn't he weird?"

"You are," he said to the little robot. "And what are YOU doing in our house uninvited?"

"Being a pain, ha ha!" said IQ.

"You can say that again, you tinwit," muttered Derek.

"If you men will excuse me, I have to put on some clothes," Nova said. "I am not about to go over and see Diane and Steve like _this_! Derek, how hot do they say it will be today?"

"110," said Derek.

"Okay, I'll dress accordingly…you stay here with the kids until I get back, okay?" Nova said as she grabbed up something from her shoe cabinet and ran upstairs again.

"Where does she get that energy from? I can't compute," said IQ-9.

"That coffee of hers, I bet," said Doctor Sane. "Wildstar, how do you live with the worst coffee in the universe?"

"Doc, I'm used to her coffee by now," said Derek. "I must be the only person out there who loves her coffee…."

* * *

At the home she shared with Stephen Sandor, Diane Henson was tossing, moaning, and screaming in her sleep as, in her dreams, she relived the rape.

"Diane….please…please don't do that," said Sandor as he held her, dressed in a casual pair of slacks, old button-down shirt, and black closed-toe house slippers.

She screamed and cried, "Please STOP it! Please stop hurting me, DAMN YOU!" Then, she hit Steve.

Steve kissed her and held her until she woke up. "Where….am…I?" she slurred, sweaty and naked in her bed.

Sandor held her and said, "Shhhh…you're safe, Diane. Here. With me. Nova is coming over in a while to check you, and…."

"Please….please wash me," murmured Diane as she sobbed. "I feel so…dirty..I…"

Steve thus slipped away (but not too far away) to tenderly prepare a warm basin of water for the purpose of making Diane clean again. She looked back at Steve and asked, "Dear…are you going to be ready soon?"

"Diane, you know it takes a while to get a bath ready for someone in bed…" Steve said tenderly as he came back and kissed her. Then he said, "I….I'm going to bathe you right in my lap…"

"That sounds very sweet…where did you get that idea from?"

Steve smiled. "Derek told me he does it all the time with Nova…especially when she's nursing one of the twins and does not have one or even both hands free…"

Diane smiled. She finally felt utterly safe for the moment in Steve's arms as he helped her into his lap like a child. "Where do we start?" Steve said.

"My bum, as the British say it," Diane said with a tiny, shaky smile. "Stephen…please be very careful there…and…?"

"Yes…?"

"This may sound…incredibly weird…but I want to be made love to by you and you alone while I'm bathed…" Diane said shakily. "I know while I could not take it here…" Diane said as she pointed to her butt while crawling around in such a way that she was on Steve's lap on her stomach with her bottom up…almost like a child about to have her bottom cleaned or to be spanked… "I could certainly take it here…" Diane said as she got Steve to touch her womanhood. "Luckily, Zoltar wasn't in there for long and didn't really do any damage…" Diane said as she winced while Steve began to gently wash her anal area clean. "Oh…GOD! That hurts…I…"

"Diane…I'll stop if…"

"No…it has to be clean! I have to be clean…" Diane sobbed. As Stephen very tenderly went back to his chore, Diane whispered as she guided one of his hands to the proper spot, "Please touch me there…and keep on doing it…"

Sandor kissed the top of Diane's head and continued washing her while he touched the center of her. She was undamaged there…and outwardly, at least..almost undefiled…to Diane, the warm sudsy water from Steve's sponge felt wonderful as it ran over her private area, down inside her thighs, and down her legs, which were soon wet down to her toes.

Many minutes followed…Steve tenderly washed Diane's buttocks, her lower back, and then her upper back with one hand while he pleasured her womanhood very tenderly with the other hand. As she lay there, she finally said, "Steve…you probably wonder why my…vaginal area is not all that damaged?"

"Why is that?"

"He made me wet for that while he was feeling me up…he started with my breasts…and then he did other things.." Diane sobbed. "Stephen, I couldn't help it. He got his…cock…his ugly damn alien thing..in me, but I didn't let it stay there for long..I….felt so dirty…I…"

"You what?" Steve asked as she sat up…

"…I made him pull out of me, because I knew it wasn't you! Put those hands back!" Diane cried. "NOW!" she barked as her lip trembled. Steve had taken his hands off of her for only a short time before she made him touch her again with his right hand while his left hand went right for her breasts and the erect nipples showed up in sharp relief. Diane was not only loving her soon-to-be husband, she was needing him as she began to tremble and gasp in his arms….finally….she cried out and shut her eyes as she said, "Steve…I love you…thank you…my darling…oh, dear God…you still want me…yes…yes…YES!"

Diane then threw herself back and let Nature take its course in her body as tears ran down her cheeks, and she exploded with pleasure. When she was done, she kissed her husband's hands and said, "Steve…thank you so much….I feel like a woman again…not some..piece of…meat…"

Stephen looked at Diane with tears in her eyes. "Diane, how could I not want you after what happened…I'm afraid you won't want me…I couldn't have been there to stop it…I…"

Then, the doorbell rang. "Let me get it," Steve said. "Wait right there," he said as he kissed Diane.

He answered the door, and found that Nova was standing there with a medical bag. It was already very hot outside. Nova had come over in her new Subaru clad in a very thin, gauzy cropped peasant top that bared her stomach (and showed a bit of her breasts through the very thin material), a pair of khaki short shorts, and gladiator sandals in brown on her bare feet. "Good morning, Steve. How is she?"

"Well," Steve said in a low voice, blushing like crazy as he said it, "We…just sort of made love before you showed up..I think it's a good sign…"

"I know this is a very personal question, but I need this to treat her properly…Did she ask for it?" Nova asked Steve as she sat down on the shoe bench in his house and unzipped her gladiator sandals, slipping into the soft pink open-toed house slippers she favored at all times of the year at the Sandor residence. She was a frequent enough visitor to Sandor's place that her slippers were kept next to Diane's bright red open-toe slippers and next to a brown pair that Derek favored…they were very old but they had once belonged to his brother Alex.

"Heck yes," Steve said. "It was while I was bathing her. She said she needed to feel clean…like a woman again….she…"

"I understand perfectly," Nova said. "I know how she feels…because I went through the same feelings myself…days ago…" Nova said softly. She blushed a little as she said, "Fortunately, your dear friend Alex's little brother Derek is a very good man. He….treated me like a Princess…and…reassured me by making love to me whenever I asked for it. In fact…I sort of wish I was back in bed with him _now_," Nova said. She took a few deep breaths, but Steve noticed that her nipples were very clearly visible and hard in her thin top. "God, I want him now," Nova whispered, and then started when she saw Steve looking at her. "I'm…sorry…Steve….the way he makes me feel…."

"It's okay, Nova. Wanting him right now is nice and clean. Diane says I make her feel the same way," Steve said as he stroked Nova's cheek. "Let's go up and see her….I'll hold her hand while you examine her…if that's all right…"

"What does she have on?" Nova said. "I…need to gently get at her to see things…"

"She's still naked," Steve said softly. "In fact, she's refused to dress since she took that coat off last night when we got home…"

"Very common in this situation," Nova said softly. "When that Stovall creep got at me, when I got home to Derek after being examined, I refused to get dressed for about a day and a half. The detective from CID interviewed me while I had on nothing but a towel. Let's go up and see her…"

At that, they went to the bedroom together.

* * *

At about the same time, at Foxworth Manor, Invidia rolled about in bed, naked under sheets next to Foxy, as she moaned and cried out in a horrible dream….

In the dream, somehow, it had come out who she really was…and all of Earth knew it.

For some reason, Trelaina had withdrawm from her the gift to Change, so when Katrina turned back into Invidia, she found that she was unable to resume any sort of guise.

While she was putting in her Royal Pin while sitting in sandals and a dressing gown, the door to her bedroom burst open, and she screamed as six unformed Space Marines came into the room with weapons trained on her. "Princess INVDIA, war criminal?" snapped one of the Marines as a bunch of men in black uniforms trimmed with silver came in. "Federation Special Services unit," snapped one of the guards in a louder voice. "We just found out, Invidia."

"Who…who told you?" Invidia cried as two of the Marines came for her.

Then, a very grim-looking Foxy came into the room. "Invidia, I am not sorry. Two detectives showed up and asked me if you were who they thought you were, and I said yes…especially when they showed me evidence you were plotting against me!"

"Evidence?" said Invidia. "What evidence! And who found it?"

Then, another woman walked into the room, looking like an angry cloudburst in her gold and black Star Force uniform and blue peacoat as she grabbed Invidia and slapped her hard across the face. "Evidence of another plot to kill me. And our babies!" Nova screamed in her face. "You would poison my children, you war criminal whore? And you pretended to be my friend?" Nova screamed in her face before she spat upon upon her.

"Let me at her, Nova!" Commodore Wildstar said as he stormed into the room in his black peacoat, Naval cap, Star Force uniform, and white scarf. "This evidence shows that you were just in contact with a fleet, Invidia. A Cometine battle fleet! And you stole our defense plans and codes right from my desk drawer in our HOUSE? You stinking Goddamned Mata Hari BITCH!" he roared as he nodded for the SS men to grab her. They pulled her up, and her sandals flew off as she screamed and kicked.

Then, Derek looked at Nova, who nodded. Derek then punched Invidia right in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of her with a gasp and a wheeze. Then, while she was trying to catch her breath, Derek also spat on her, and he ripped her dressing gown open, revealing her nakedness. He then said, "Lieutenant Gelman, strip her completely naked, put handcuffs on her and then bend her over the table so that Nova can cavity-search her for weapons or hidden devices. Nova, get your glove on…we don't have much time until the cruiser arrives, and she's going right to UltraMax in Sumida Military Prison after we get finished with her there. Then, the SS can have her."

"Yessir," Nova said.

"Foxy, please help me…" cried Invidia as they dragged her up and tore every single stitch of clothing off of her. "PLEASE! You said you vould…"

"Shut up," said Kazuo in a VERY cold voice. "You are not my wife anymore, you traitor! I thought you had turned over a new leaf, but you fooled Michelle and I just like all of the others…."

Michelle then ran in, with her eyes filled with tears, and she walked right up to Invidia and spit in her face. "HOW COULD YOU? You were going to have them bomb my school and put us into Death Camps!"

"You were going to make me into a naked slave of yours!" Nova snapped. "Bend over, Invidia!" she said as she began to perform the roughest, angriest body search she had ever done as a medical professional in her life as Invidia screamed at this violation of her naked body right in front of everyone as they held her down and literally treated her like an animal. When Nova was done, not only was the finger of her glove soiled as Invidia wept, it was also…bloody.

Then, she was kicked, and dragged out of Foxwoth Manor as one of the SS men said, "There will be a summary secret war crimes and security trial, Princess Invidia, Enemy Alien 45-2341A. The expected veridict for your crimes will be guilty, and we expect the sentence to be death," said the SS man as Ekogaru's weird "Passicaglia and Fugue in C Minor" began to ring through her ears. "We will most likely carry out the sentence tonight, you whore!" snapped the detective as she was led out of Foxworth Manor's gates towards a black van while a crowd of reporters filmed everything as the naked prisoner was dragged down the street, the hot asphalt burning her bare feet horribly as a crowd gathered and chanted, "KILL HER! KILL HER! HANG HER! HANG HER!"

"How vill I…die…?" asked Invidia.

"Firing squad, maybe being hung, drawn and quartered, or maybe crucifixion," said the SS man as the scene changed to the prison courtyard, where they dragged her out, dirty, still completely naked (they had actually made her go naked for her summary trial in front of cameras) and they threw her on the ground onto a wooden crossbeam, a massive thing with ropes on it.

"Hi, dear," said Foxy as he stood among the SS men as they immobilized Invidia's arm. He put a big nail against her wrist and said, "Let's see how hard we can bang this in, huh?"

"Good one," Nova said at her other wrist, smiling as she big another big nail against Invidia's wrist while Derek waited with a hammer. Derek and Nova kissed, and then, Derek swung the hammer at the same time Foxy did.

A bolt of pain went through Invidia's nude body as the nails slammed home and her own blood sprayed against her face. Then, the crossbeam was dragged up a pole and locked down to form her cross while Nova and Foxy put her scraped, bleeding bare feet on a splintery foot rest.

Then, nails were driven through Invidia's bare feet as the blood flowed and she screamed, screamed…and screamed…and everything went black….as Invidia, in her nightmare, assumed that this was the end and she was beginning to die….as Ekogaru's laughter resounded through her dream as he said, "YOU BELONG TO ME, BITCH!" as his skull-like face appeared. "DO YOU HEAR ME! You belong…to..ME!"

* * *

While Invidia sobbed and cried in her nightmare, the Dark Lord himself, who had taken over the form of Gary Maples to such an extent that the human was looked aged and senile, stood up and cackled insanely as he looked at his Crystalline Sphere, which was on an ugly black iron stand in a dungeon beneath the torture chamber of a black stone castle of his deep in the desert on Planet R'Khelleva. The castle was a truly ugly-looking place, and it was a headquarters for the remaining hundred or so bedraggled survivors of Yvona Josiah's Racist Cult...most of whom had run for their lives off of Earth after having been soundly defeated by Derek and Nova Wildstar and their Marines and Troopers in Vietnam.

With Jared having died in combat, the Prophet and High Priest of what remained of the Joshiahite Cult was an unexpected person...a man clad only in a rag and covered in whip wounds and scars who cowered on his face before Ekogaru. This man was Samuel Josiah, former EDF fighter pilot, former son of Hiram and Yvona Josiah, and a former childhood playmate of Nova.

"Raise your head, Josiah!" snapped Ekogaru after he spent some time sending his vile, vile dreams to Invidia.

Samuel had once been handsome, but he was that way no more. He had lost an eye in a battle after he had joined the ranks of the cultists, and a huge, ugly scar ran across his face. He looked at Ekogaru with his good eye, and said, "Yes, Colonel Maples?"

Ekogaru slapped him across the face. "NEVER call me that when I am in control HERE! NEVER! Are we **clear** on that?" he said as he waved his hand over the Sphere, which was functioning like a classic sorceror's Crystal Ball now.

"Yes, my Lord," gasped Samuel. "I was glad to have the chance to join the Josiahites, Lord, after I finally realized my Mother was right, and you are the Lord, worthy of our worship and devotion, O Wise One," he said as he kissed Ekogaru's ring.

Ekogaru smiled and said, "Even though you failed to bring me your cousin's head in a box...like I ordered you to..."

"Lordship, I could not get near her! Wildstar and his men had her protected too damn well. And Nova is a cunning sniper and marksman herself." He pointed to a wound in his leg. "She gave me this, at seven hundred meters' distance through a night vision scope when I tried to charge their foxhole. Probably didn't even know who I was with my Hood on." He looked at the Sphere. "What is this, my Lord?"

"A nightmare I am giving your cousin," laughed Ekogaru. A few hours had passed on Earth, and Nova had finished her visit with Diane and was now taking a nap again beside Derek in the early afternoon. "I just dealt with Invidia. I am making Nova think she is being hung, drawn, and quartered. See that nice bloody thing being torn from her naked stomach? Nova is dreaming that she is having her spleen being torn out with a metal hook along with her intestines." Samuel smiled at the sight of his cousin being "torn to bits" in her bloody nightmare and asked, "Who are you going to give a vile dream to, next, Lord?"

"Kazuo...Invidia's mate and catamount," hissed Ekogaru. "I am giving him a truly vile dream, which goes like...THIS..."

* * *

"THIS…no, man, not this damn dream again," Foxy muttered.

Kazuo Foxwoth-Savela was dreaming that he was chained to the side of what seemed to be a railroad boxcar, illuminated by a few battery-powrered lanterns. He was naked, and he sat on straw for bedding.

In the dark train car, which swayed and banged as the train went down the tracks, there were other moaning people in the freight car, all of them stripped naked, many hungry, many dying. Foxy looked up and he saw a naked dark-haired woman trying to nurse her babies as she shivered.

Kazuo remembered what had happened…but he didn't want to remember. It had been a month ago…and the Black Nebulans and the Comet Empire had broken the truce and had invaded the solar system.

The fall of Earth had been quick. The Defense Fleet had fallen in battle in about a week. The _Arizona_ had been destroyed. And, last of all, the _Argo_ had tried to fight on….

She had been caught between about twelve Gorba fortresses, and had been reduced almost to a wreck; the sustained rate of fire had been even too much for her to endure.

She had not been destroyed. She had been captured. Her wreck had been exhibited to the people of Earth, and there were quick shots of her surviving crew, captured by Cometines, marched off in chains, either in the ragged remains of their uniforms…or naked…into captivity.

That was about the time that Invidia had vanished. Foxy had no idea what had become of her or Michelle; he only found Foxwoth Manor half burned-down…his servants dead….

…he had gone to Derek and Nova's place, next. It was also half burned-down, ransacked by the enemy. In fact, the enemy was using Derek and Nova's bedroom as part of a whorehouse, and their once-beautiful backyard had been turned into a motor pool for Cometine vehicles and trucks.

Not long after that, Foxy had been captured. They had refused to tell him who was ruling Earth now. He had been stripped, beaten, robbed, interrogated, and raped.

Then, he had been placed in the hold of a ship. He had just barely survived that hellish journey, across some ocean. When they had landed, he had been able to see that he was part of a group of prisoners being marched through San Diego in chains. He was able to see that the Rio Amarillo apartments had been heavily bombed, and were in fact still burning, along with the rest of the city, as Cometine Scorpion planes flew overhead.

Then, they had forced him into a train, which had been going somewhere for days.

Now, the train was finally coming to a stop. The door to the boxcar was thrown open, and Black Nebulan guards looked at the group of people in the boxcar, most of them naked, most identifiable only by the prisoner numbers that had been branded painfully onto their thighs.

Foxy, dirty, bearded, and long-haired, was trying to cover his crotch when the Black Nebulan guards came for him, and they pulled his hands away and laughed at his exposed manhood as one of them said, "Not eating too well, eh, Foxy?"

"How do you know who I am?"

"We know a lot about you, 23-12315!" snapped the other guard. "Get the hell up!" he snapped through his helmet. His voice sounded mechanical and harsh through his speaker system.

"Where am I?" demanded Foxy.

"This is the former EDF Fort Indiantown Gap Base in Pennsylvania, United States of North America, near Harrisburg, which we have bombed to ashes. It is now a Concentration Camp for the most dangerous of you lot who survived our invasion, which we planned far more carefully this time. There are five hundred thousand here now. In the next month, we plan to have just one hundred thousand."

"What are you going to do with everyone else?" said Foxy.

"We plan to execute them, what do you think?" snapped the other guard. "You see, scum…this is a Death Camp…."

"Death Camp?"

Then, as Foxy was dragged off the train, he saw Homer Glitchmann, deprived of his clothes, tied to a pole, while Wendy begged and pleaded for his life.

The Cometine pushed her away, and two Cometines shot him. A moment later, Homer was bloody and dead.

Not far away, as a dirty, naked Nova held Alex and Ariel and pleaded for them to spare Derek, four Black Nebulans tied a dirty, naked, and bearded Commodore Wildstar to a pole, where he was shot through the chest and executed right in front of Nova. Nova was then kicked and dragged off to some building while she screamed and tried to get to Derek's body, which was cut down and thrown onto a cart on top of Homer's body.

_Why are they letting me live? _Foxy thought as he saw other Star Force couples parted by death. Mark Venture was decapitated in front of Holly, Deke Wakefield was burned alive in front of Sasha, and Jefferson Hardy was beaten to death in front of Dawn. In all the cases he had seen, it was the men who were killed, and their grieving, naked widows, some with their babies, were dragged off in chains toward a building. There, other partings happened as the children were torn from their mothers. The female children were saved, while the boy babies were killed. Foxy nearly wretched as he saw two Black Nebulans executing little Alex Wildstar III in front of his mother Nova by smashing his head against a wall. Little David Hardy died in front of Dawn with a bayonet shoved through him. Jonathan was nailed up to a cross and left to die as Nova was pushed along like an animal, her husband executed, and her children torn from her. With no reason to live on, she tried to get at one of the guards' blasters while yelling, "You killed my husband…you took my babies from me, so I'm going to die but take some of you with me first!", but they just beat her down into the mud and dragged her on by her chains with her nose broken.

Finally, Foxy and the fresh, grieving widows were forced into a large building, where there was a luxurious office.

There, lolling on a throne, was Invidia, back in her dark red dress and Royal Pin, laughing her head off. "Oh, how nice, isn't it, that we see what ze Great Star Force has been reduced to? A group of screaming vidows! I vill have you know that your husbands' remains are now at ze crematorium! They tell me that Homer and Derek are burning very nicely! Hahahahahahahaha!"

"You monster!" yelled Wendy.

"Why the hell are you doing this?" Nova demanded. "And why did you tear my babies from me and kill my son, Invidia?"

"We just want the girl babies. We will nurture them and turn them into the same profession you people are about to embark upon, starting today, which is to be prostitutes for the Comet Empire! Earth is being converted into a slave labor planet and rest and recreation centre for our troops while they proceed to crush the Gamilon Empire, Rikashans, and Bolar Federation as ve take over this whole Galaxy! We killed your men because they are part of your potential resistance, and we want to show them you will be nothing!"

"Why am I here?" Foxy demanded.

"Easy….Foxy, whom I never loved," said Invidia. "You, Foxy One, who I used, who I tricked, are to be a male prostitute in the same compound with the women! Get Nova fixed first. Oh, Nova dear, I used to be Katrina Savela. You thought I vas your friend?" laughed Invidia. "I was plotting this for months. You are to go off with General Radnar, first, so you have to look nice for your….rape session….with him, for helikes to be rough with the women! Foxy, you get the General's aide Admiral Tendor, who likes boys as well as girls! Cheer up, Foxy, Nova. You will get to see each other being raped! Hahahahahahahaha!"

* * *

Foxy thrashed, screamed, whimpered, and cried as he woke up beside Invidia, who was moaning.

"I just had the most horrible dream!" he said. "What about you?"

"Foxy, is that you?" said Invidia. "Really you?"

"Yes, dear," said Foxy as he crawled to Invidia and held her. They were both crying, but they were in neither a military prison or a concentration camp. They were safe, at home, in their own bed in Foxworth Manor. A window was open, it was afternoon, and the birds were singing.

Foxy, in only a fundoshi, got up and closed the window. Invidia threw off her sheets; she was naked. She held Foxy when he came to her and began to kiss him.

"You will never leave me or turn me in, will you?" she whimpered.

"You had better believe it….no, I will never leave you….no, I will never turn you in," said Foxy as he kissed Invidia. "Would you ever betray me if you were in a position, as commander of your House, to lead another invasion of Earth?"

"No, Foxy…I would NEVER betray you, and I hope to bring Earth peacefully into our Empire someday…I do not want to be part of another invasion," Invidia said as she kissed Foxy and began to pull off his fundoshi.

Invidia began to caress Foxy as he kissed down her stomach. They were both crying. Invidia's tears turned into tears of happiness as Foxy kissed his way down between her legs. She began to moan as he kissed her _there_, over and over and over again, as she arched her back, with her breasts in the air, moaning first softly and then loudly as Foxy made love to her with his kisses and refused to let go. He kissed around her and held her as he changed position, and, finally, she took him in her mouth.

Invidia soon screamed with urgent pleasure as Foxy kissed around her again, and he plunged into her like a diver jumping into the deep sea. They rolled together, mussing the sheets with their sheer joy as they wept and made love to each other, going on again and again and again until they exploded in pleasure and lay spent, kissing each other's faces and whispering their names.

* * *

Ekogaru changed the view in his crystal from a view of Nova and Derek lying there in post-lovemaking bliss, just holding each other, to a view of what he hoped would be a major fight between Invidia and Foxy.

Instead, his lips curled back over his teeth and he snarled like an animal as he saw Foxy and Invidia lying there smiling and holding each other.

"damn you," he muttered under his breath.

"What?" said Samuel Josiah. "Oh, is that the other set of lovebirds?"

"DAMN YOU, Foxy!" roared Ekogaru. "Curse you, damn you, torment you, damn you, damn you, may you die, protecting her, damn you, damn you, damn you, you love that bitch, who belongs to ME just as much as that damned Wildstar loves his cursed Nova, who is the target I want to kill, and I want to kill that rotten Invidia too, Invidia, you crap, you betrayer, you filth, you shit, DAAAAMN YOU!" screamed Ekogaru as he raged. DAAAAMN YOU!"

Ekogaru howled like a beast as he lashed out at Samuel, his nearest target. He raged at him and began to fire bolts of lightning into his body. Samuel screamed as Ekogaru roared at him, taking out his utterly insane rage on one of his own servants. "Curse that Invidia, damn that Kazuo, may your cousin Nova die and fall into a pit of fire, and may Wildstar burn like a torch when I get done with him! ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHH!" yelled Ekogaru as he burned Samuel over and over and over again. Then, he grabbed a sword and randomly beheaded a R'Khell priest who had come in to check out the noise.

The Dark Lord picked up an altar with an inhuman strength and he flung it at another priest, killing him with a smashing sound as his chest was crushed in.

Then, he found a whip and began to beat Samuel with it as Samuel Josiah grovelled and screamed, "MERRCY, lord! Please show me your mercy!"

"I HAVE NO MERCY!" roared the Dark Lord. "I have no sense of mercy whatsoever! Damn you all! Invidia! Betrayer! I cannot destroy your love for that damn Foxy! ARRRRRGGGH!" he roared as he threw over some iron candle holders in his rage, setting his own curtains afire. When two more priests came in to investigate, Ekogaru shot them down with flames from his hands like dogs.

Then, he tried to teleport right to Foxwoth Manor to have it out with Invidia and Foxy once and for all.

But, nothing happened.

He had spent his power (for the time being) in his utter freak-out of rage.

The Dark Lord thus lay on the floor, bashing the stone floor with his fists, snarling and cursing in five languages as he realized that, for now, he could do NOTHING to tear apart Invidia or Foxy or even to hurt Nova and Derek.

They were beyond him. Their will to resist him and to go on loving was too great for even him to break.

And he hated them all the more for it!

* * *

**III. BRIS MALLAH…**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**EDF Commanding General Hiram C. Singleton's Home**

**Wedenesday August 3, 2208**

**1401 Hours**

* * *

At the Commander's home, a party was in progress, with many members of the Star Force present.

The occasion was a delayed but important ceremony for Homer and Wendy Glitchman.

Namely, the ceremony today was the Jewish equivalent of a christening for their baby sons Aaron and Joshua Glitchman.

Today, Aaron and Joshua, twin boys about a month and a half old, would become members of the ancient Covenant of Israel when they received the time-honored rite of circumcision. Their circumcisions had to be delayed since they had been born with rather low platelet counts; a condition that cleared itself up as they had matured.

Now, Wendy and Homer sat holding their sons on their laps as a party went on around them in Singleton's huge backyard, both inside and around a large white tent erercted over part of the yard to provide some shade. Aaron was on Homer's lap near a table, while Joshua was on Wendy's lap. Homer wore not his EDF uniform but a dark suit with a yarmulke, while Wendy had on a light top, just-above-the-knee length skirt, and sandals. Joshua and Aaron had been adorably clothed before in little blue shirts with animal-style hats, sandals, and their diapers, but Wendy had Homer had just undressed them down to their diapers in preparation for the circumcision rite, where they would be naked.

"They look so cute," said Sasha, who was there with Deke and Star. Star had on a little blue skirt and a tiny bikini top, and she kicked as she nursed at her mother. Sasha wore a bib-coverall style sundress in blue that had its bib down and open in the sun as she sat nursing Star very close to naked in the heat as the Iscandarian Princess wiggled her toes in the grass. It was a very hot day, so Sasha's exposure to nurse wasn't terribly remarkable. Deke had worn a polo shirt, shorts, and sandals himself with a borrowed yarmulke while Sasha had come barefoot.

"Star looks adorable," replied Wendy. "And she's getting big fast…"

"She certainly is," said Katrina Savela, who had come in a dark purple sundress and sandals. Foxy had on a white suit with a black ribbon tie that made him look like some deranged old-style Southern American "Colonel". He was having trouble keeping his yarmulke on. "How do you get this skullcap to stay on your head?" he asked.

"I'll help you with it," sighed Homer. "Wildstar, would you come here, sir? I want to see how Nova pinned your yarmulke on."

"With lots of bobby pins," laughed Derek as he came over, with a black yarmulke firmly pinned into his mane of hair. He had on a dress shirt, vest, tie, dress slacks, and dockside shoes without socks as he walked Ariel over with him. Ariel wore a wide-brimmed hat and a pink sundress with little white sandals. She hugged her father and said, "Where Mommy?"

"Mommy is in the house drying your brother off and dressing him again after he wanted to go into the pool with Cousin David; remember?" Derek said, smiling at the memory as he remembered David in the pool in swimwear (Teri had dressed him in swim trunks) while Nova and Alex had joined him in the pool along with Marina Carmody's twin boys. Marina and her babies were already in the pool naked with their older sister Felicia and Foxy and Katrina's adopted daughter Michelle (both teenagers had come to the party wearing only bikinis, which they wore in the water), but Nova had politely asked the Commander's wife for permission to undress herself and Alex before joining them in the Commanding General's large, elegant swimming pool, also in the nude since they had no swimwear. Derek had thought they had all looked adorable in the pool, playing and splashing with the Commander's long-haired teenage niece Eiko, who had gone into the pool in only her hair and a cute newsgirl cap. Everyone else there also thought the young mothers looked adorable with their babies. In those times, and especially in that incredible heat, a mother splashing in the water with her baby or toddler, even if both were naked, was considered a cute and innocent sight that usually drew smiles.

General Stone had been casting sidelong glances at the pool, that weren't so innocent, but even Jade had been steering him away from the area, whispering in his ear, "Yes, I see three of those girls are naked, but two of them have _babies_ with them, for Heaven's sake! It's hot and the babies need to splash around with their mothers for a while! Give them a little space in case they need to nurse or something."

Stone and Jade had gotten into an argument over that, so Stone had stomped off to another part of Singleton's vast yard while a small band played Jewish _klezmer_ music in the background, heavy on the clarinets as was traditional.

General Stone, after wandering around, therefore, found himself face-to-face with Teri Forrester.

Stone grabbed Teri by the arm and told her, "Come over here to this gazebo, Teresa. We need to talk."

"Jack, I'm here with my husband," said Teri in a trembling and angry voice. "Not to mention my oldest daughter and my son-in-law. What in the Name of God do you want?" she hissed. Once they went into the gazebo, Teri, in a dark green sundress with her hair down, slapped her sandal-clad foot hard against the boards of the gazebo and said, "Jack. Read my lips. _It was in the past._ I'm no longer interested!"

"You slipped months ago, Teresa. In fact, _you_ showed up at my house," General Stone snapped.

"I was drunk then, and in a very unstable period. I've told you how the change of life is affecting me," Teri snapped. "You know what I am going through. Karl knows. Nova sort of knows. No one else has to know."

"Ahh….what if I let a _lot _of people know?" whispered Stone.

"Know what?" hissed Teri.

"That one of Earth's top lawyers, someone whom the Federalist Party is considering for greater things someday….what if I let them know that this lawyer has a wife who wanders because he can't keep her safely in his own bed? What if I let the world know that the last time you were at my place, Teresa, that you were drunk and screaming for it on those stupid leopard-patterned sheets you like?"

Teri's lip curled back and she slapped General Stone across the face. "You wouldn't _dare_, Jack! You always come into my life at the worst times for me, at the worst points, and you manage to restart something I wanted ended back in college when I met Karl! And why don't you just _stay with your wife_? You've told me yourself she's better-looking than I am! Jackson Stone, you and I are _old news_! Ancient history! Or go marry one of your damned bimbo girlfriends! Just get out of my life!"

"But I have so much to dangle over your head, Teresa," crooned General Jackson Stone. "Karl will never get a high office if I make a few calls to the Federalist committeee heads I know. And….oh….in a few years, your lovely daughter will be up for consideration for Captain. Wouldn't it be a terrible shame if Nova never makes the rank of Captain because her jacket is pulled in for a review? Or, what if I order an Aptitude Board on her? Or your long-haired rebellious son-in-law, with a nice record of leading mutinies, who only made flag rank because Singleton himself went to the President?"

"What if I went to the Press and told them about what you pulled that time in 2180, Jack?" Teri hissed back. "That trip across the desert? Thank God she was too small to remember what you pulled when you took my child off to Arizona. I went to the police after you brought her back, but they shoved me off. Jack…why did you do that?"

"Easy and simple. How do we know Karl is really her father?" hissed Stone. "Have you ever had Nova's paternity medically tested?"

"That's unncessary and you know it," lied Teri. "Except for that one time with the date rape drug, you were nowhere near me after I married Karl and I told you to get lost!"

"We shall have to see," said Stone. He looked over and saw Nova coming in the distance with Alex in tow. He knelt down over Teri, gave her a quick kiss on the cheek that she turned away from, and then he whispered, "You know, the criminal statute is just seven years. You tried to prosecute me for a lot, but it never got anywhere, now, did it, Teresa? We will talk later, Teresa. My dear mistress…."

"Go to hell, Stone," Teri whispered back at him with a hard squeeze of his hand as he tried to hold hands with her.

He slipped out of the gazebo just as Nova came up, with slightly wet hair, wearing a sundress with overall-style straps at her bare shoulders and East Indian-style thong sandals of a sort popular back in the 1960's. Alex walked beside her, in a little blue and white sunsuit and blue sandals with a fresh set of training pants on beneath them. "Mother, what did Stone want with you?"

"Old business about your father from back in college," Teri lied.

"He's a _horrible_ person, Mother! Why was he _really_ around us when I was small? He really was not an uncle of yours, was he?" Nova said, locking her dark eyes with her "Does he have something on Dad? They say he has dirty laundry hidden on half the people in the Government. What does he have on him?"

"Nova, I don't think it's anything. He wanted to discuss old times, that's all, he got mean. You know him by now, Nova. He's about as agreeable…as an old tomcat with diarrhea, dear…"

Nova smiled a little at that. "Mother, if he ever bothers you…let me know, and…"

"Nova, it would hurt your career if you did that….and maybe Derek's?"

"Bull! Everyone is afraid of him. If he pulls something that we can prove…I'll…"

"Nova, I'm glad you're here. I need you to do something for me."

"Yes?"

Teri looked at her daughter and then said, with pleading eyes, "I want you to get some genetic tests done on your blood….I'm worried about you and your babies!"

"Mother, you're bringing this up again?" Nova said. "I had enough tests after they were born. We're all fine. I'm in good health, and free to have more children whenever I want to. I may not mind being pregnant again, Mom…after this crisis settles down and after my first year of Medical School, that is."

In fact, Nova had all but made up her mind already to try again for another child sometime in her second year of Medical School. She had decided that being home on Earth as a student would be a good, peaceful time to be pregnant and then to begin raising another sibling for Alex and Ariel in relative peace and quiet. Derek himself had also been saying that he was interested in attending the Space Naval War College course himself for a year or two as a step on the road to getting a Rear Admiral's star and to ask that Mark Venture be assigned as Captain of the _Argo_ in case a crisis arose. This had both pleased and surprised Nova…in a very pleasant fashion. She had been wanting to raise the notion of settling down for a time, but was not sure of how to broach it to him…until he had brought it up himself. They both agreed then that it would make perfect sense for both of them to spend some time in school working on what they needed for their professional advancement.

Running this through her mind, Nova said to her mother, "Why do you want me tested again?"

"Why Gramma worried?" Alex asked.

"Nova, Alex…I want to be sure you're healthy, that's all," sobbed Teri. "After you have Doctor Sane or Doctor Stuart take a sample from you, would you please get it to this doctor?" Teri said as she wrote a note on a pad. "His name is Doctor Kojiro Abe, and this his address and phone number, and I want to make sure there is nothing wrong…okay?"

"Okay, Mother," said Nova. "I'll see about having a sample taken in a week and and I'll make sure Doctor Sane sends it to Doctor Abe. There'll be nothing to worry about. But you owe me for this," Nova said with a wink. "You know I hate needles in my body, _mother_. I hate them almost as much as I hate stockings or pantyhose with sandals," Nova said lightly. "See you later!"

Teri kissed her daughter and let her take off. Then, she thought, _Please, Lord God, please don't let Stone be her father. Karl has to have been her father…we were making love nearly every day for a month up to the time I think she was conceived…Stone, damn him, only got at me once during that time…during that horrible night…when I passed out and woke up tied to the headboard of his bed….with nothing on below my waist…._

* * *

A little later, it was time for Aaron and Joshua to receive their Rite.

Rabbi Greenberg, the Argo's former Chaplain, would perform the ceremony. Two chairs were prepared, one for the _Sandek_, or person who would be holding the babies on their knees during the procedure. In Wendy and Homer's, the _Sandek_ was Commanding General Singleton.

As the Commander prepared to have a cloth laid over his lap, he watched General Stone sitting there with Jade, laughing. _Why did I invite him here, other than the fact that we work together? _Singleton thought. _I heard he started something earlier with Teri Forrester. When I heard, I told him to stop the games, or to just leave….maybe I just should have told him to leave, right then and there…._

Wendy's grandparents of her mother's side of the family, who were named Samuel and Roberta Elkins, had the honor of bringing a bemused Aaron and Joshua up for the ceremony. The baby boys had been stripped of their clothing and diapers just before the ceremony, and they looked very cute in the arms of their other grandparents.

Nova knelt near the Commander to assist the Rabbi. She was bouncing Alex on her lap. Due to an accident where he had wet himself a few minutes beforehand when he couldn't make either the potty or a bush fast enough, he had also been stripped naked like the two younger babies so that he could dry out and so that his clothes had could be washed. Somehow, despite this, Nova had managed to scrub and get a set of gloves over both her hands and the Rabbi's.

Derek knelt near Nova with Ariel standing nearby, and asked, "Now what's he doing?"

"He's puttiing Aaron on that empty chair, the Chair of Elijah, for a blessing," said Nova, who then assisted the Rabbi in sitting the little boy on the Commander's lap. Nova assisted the Rabbi in putting some anesthetic cream on the baby's boyhood. Some prayers were said, and the Rabbi then quickly did his business with the knife. Alex looked on with wide eyes as the Rabbi quickly staunched the flow of blood and Nova then placed a small dressing on Aaron.

Alex made a connection quickly, and he whimpered a little and looked down at his own bare lap as a screeching Aaron was returned to Wendy for a fresh diaper. Nova said, "No, Alex, we're not cutting yours. This is only for Aaron and Joshua, honey…"

Joshua was brought up a moment later in just his skin, and the Rabbi and Nova quickly worked together to also make Joshua a son of the Covenant. Joshua also screeched after the ceremony, while Homer diapered him, and Alex began to cry and look at the Rabbi. He said, "Mister not cut ME!"

"No, son, we're not going to cut yours," said the Rabbi as he smiled a little as Alex tried to cover up his penis (he was not very successful since it stuck out between his fingers). Wendy then looked at her grandfather, the Commander, who looked a little green. "Are you all right?" she whispered as she held Aaron.

"I don't know if I should have seen that…" he said.

"I don't know if he should have seen that, either, sir," Nova said as Alex screeched along with Aaron and Joshua. "Derek, I'm going to take Alex off somewhere…" A moment later on that warm Wednesday afternoon, Wendy picked up little Aaron and said to Nova, "I'd like to take him off in the garden to feed him….like to follow me with Alex?

"Sure," Nova said. She laughed as she picked up her son, who, of course, had been naked ever since his wee accident earlier when he had been stripped of his sunsuit, training pants, and sandals. "Up we go, Alexander…Mommy will give you boobies in the garden. See you later, Derek," Nova said as she kissed her husband. "You'll watch Ariel?"

"Sure. Just let me know where you are so I can bring her when and if she begins to scream for you," Derek laughed.

"We'll be in the garden beyond the gazebo," Wendy said, indicating another part of the grounds of her grandfather's home.

"See you later, Derek," Nova said. She carried along Alex, who giggled as his mother played with his toes. He laughed and said, "Tickles all over, Mommy!"

"Yes it would, you little scamp," Nova said as she tickled Alex's bare tummy as she carried him. The previously unhappy toddler was laughing as his father kissed him and Nova carried him off.

Soon, in the privacy of the wiild garden, Nova kicked off her Indian-style sandals and unzipped her sundress, underneath which she went naked for coolness and for ease in nursing. Alex crawled into her lap and took one of her breasts while she rested a foot on Wendy's leg while Wendy undid her blouse to give Aaron her breast, and then slipped out of her skirt and sandals for coolness as well as she, like Nova, went almost naked in the hot garden to feed her son.

Nova smiled at Wendy and said, "Getting yourself cool?"

"Darn right," Wendy laughed as she held Aaron, who began to whimper uncomfortably as he pulled at his diaper. "Nova, would you bring me my diaper bag? I think he might need a change…"

"Sure," Nova said. She helped Wendy undo Aaron's diaper and strip him of it. As Wendy washed Aaron, she gently looked at the dressing on his recently circumcised babyhood. "The bleeding doesn't look that bad, Nova. Thank heavens…."

"Be sure you put a little of that anesthethic stuff on him," Nova suggested. "Then he won't fuss as much."

Alex got a look at Aaron's bandaged little thing, and he looked down at his own little penis and began to cry again as he grabbed at it. "Mommy! Don't cut it!" he whimpered.

"No, honey, no one is going to cut into your wee-wee," Nova said as she gently began to wash some dirt and sweat off of his genitals with a baby wipe as he suckled at Nova's breast. "We're not cutting yours…all we're doing is washing it, honey…" she said. Nova sighed. "Maybe he shouldn't have seen that before…"

"Maybe my grandfather shouldn't have seen that before," Wendy laughed. "They shouldn't have put them on his lap for the _bris,_" Wendy said. "He almost passed out when Rabbi Greenberg began cutting them," Wendy giggled. "And Homer didn't look much better…good thing you kept your wits about you, Nova…."

"Yes, as best as I could with a baby boy who had just peed himself," Nova laughed. She helped Wendy put a new diaper on Aaron, and she said, "He's getting bigger, thank Heavens."

"He sure is," Wendy said. Then, she looked at Nova and said, "By the way, I'm so sorry you had to go through that…thing last week…and the same goes for Diane…"

"You heard?" Nova said

"News travels fast about these things, Nova," Wendy sighed. "I'm so sorry…about both you…and Diane. Are your bruises from that day just about gone?"

Nova nodded as she pulled her sundress open all the way. "Yeah….they're getting better," Nova said as she looked down at her bare breasts. "I had a look at my butt in the mirror at home this morning; it's almost better, too," Nova said as she pulled up her sundress so Wendy could look at the spot on her bare bottom. Nova wiped at herself, and she finally just took off her sundress and lay on it totally naked a moment later as she continued to feed Alex.

"Yeah, they're looking much better, Nova. Another day, and you can start sunbathing nude on the beach again like you like to. I know it feels nice in this heat. I did it the other day with these two when I just told Homer to strip me of my one-piece. Is Diane still going forward with the wedding on Saturday?"

"She hasn't said anything about postponing it…so….I guess it's still on," Nova said. "She's not here, but I see her every day since she and Sandor live near us…I'm trying to see if I can get the whole bridal party to go to the _onsen_ tomorrow so we can give Diane a treat before the wedding rehearsal on Friday night."

"If we go to Kojima's, I hear they have something there that might help with the bruises, Nova. It's some kind of herbal stuff they sell…you can put it on right before you go into the tub to soak on the women's side. So who are you getting to come, anyway?" Wendy asked.

"Diane and all her bridesmaids….me…you, Sasha, my mother…who is replacing Dawn as a bridesmaid…"

"Your _mother_?" Wendy said.

"Uh-huh," Nova said. "Diane and she got to talk the other day, and Diane asked her and she accepted. Luckily, Mom has enough to be able to spring for a gown and emergency fitting at a moment's notice…I have a fair amount of money, but Mom is sitting on so much that it is just ridiculous. Oh, and Katrina's the last bridesmaid I know of….who also took on the duty after Victoria got deployed into space on the _Kirishima_ and had to cancel. I intriduced her to Diane and Diane consented and so did Katrina. Katrina and Diane now get along better than they used to months ago. The _Kirishima_ is out there looking for those terrorists...like we're going to be in about the next ten days or so after we scan the Sun near Mercury. I do hope we get back in time for me to begin my classes in Medical School, Wendy."

"Me, too," Wendy said.

* * *

The next day came fairly quickly, and after a swim at home, Derek and Nova clothed themselves in only some light yukatas and geta for their trip to Kojima's _onsen_, which was maybe three kilometers away from their house in a more traditional part of the Tokyo Megalopolis.

As Nova was pulling her yukata closed after having had to nurse Ariel, Derek slipped up behind her and gave her a kiss on her bare shoulder.

"What was that for?" Nova teased.

"Just to say I love you," Derek replied as he kissed her again and then helped her close her kimono up. "Too bad we're not going up to Moroboshi's up in the mountains," Derek said. Moroboshi's place was a full _ryokan_, or inn, run by an old friend of Nova's family, and it was a bigger hot-spring resort that offered mixed as well as segregated bathing. Nova and Derek had spent a weekend up there with all of the kids a few weeks ago, and they had all enjoyed a soak together in the family area.

"I won't be able to see you at Kojima's when we get there," Nova said. "You stay on your side of the barrier with Alex, Foxy, Homer, Deke, my Dad, and Domon and your other friends," Nova teased. "NO peeking!"

"Why should I peek? I know what most of you look like naked already," Derek teased. "Except for Katrina. Even in this heat, she's never bared herself on the beach."

"She's just very modest, Derek," Nova said.

"How are the bruises looking now?" Derek said.

Nova sighed and again opened her yukata. "Gone now. I'm perfectly presentable again, thank heavens," she said as Derek came up to her and kissed her breast again. She laughed and said, "Derek, if you keep on doing that, we'll never get there, darling!"

"Sorry…you're just hard to resist right now. I love you."

"Same here, Derek," Nova said as she let her husband cover her up again. "Now, let's go…"

* * *

Half an hour later, Nova was back out of her things, and had carried Ariel into the women's side of Kojima's onsen. The women there aahed and ooed over her as Nova sat at one of the taps by the side with a wooden tub, washing down Ariel and herself before getting into the hot water.

Ariel had grown accustomed to the _onsen_, now being over eleven months old, and she was pretty well-behaved as she sat in the water near her mother as she yelled "Granma!" as Teri came into the _onsen_ holding her towel over herself.

"You're looking good, Mom," Nova said as she soaked. "Where's Aurora?"

"Over there, talking with Wendy," Teri said. "Wendy and Homer got a sitter for Aaron and Joshua since they're still healing up from yesterday," Teri added. Teri then added, "Nova, has anyone told you that sometimes, you look like a drowned rat in the _onsen_?"

"Why?" Nova snapped back.

"Your hair hangs in your eyes when it's wet, dear."

"I can't help that," Nova said as she grinned at her mother and splashed her.

"That's mean!" Teri snapped.

"Not as mean as your calling me a drowned rat, _mother_," Nova teased back.

Sasha showed up a moment later, clad in only her hair, as she came in carrying Star at her breast. After she burped her, she handed her to Nova for a bit. Nova held Star while Sasha slipped into the bath, laughing a little as the baby played with her breasts in the water. "They're pretty much like Mommy's, aren't they?"

"Still giving milk, Auntie?" Sasha teased as she slipped into the water.

"I sure am," Nova said. She made the women laugh a moment later when Star began to sample her milk, making a funny face as she realized it wasn't her mother's milk. Nova splashed over to the side of the hot spring pool, which was partly inside and partly outside, and she rubbed a bit more of the herbal preparation she had bought (per Wendy's suggestion) on her nearly faded bruises, getting her mother to help her with the one on her buttock.

"Loking better," Teri said. "Nova, dear, how did you get those?"

"Mother, I….uh…I really don't want to talk about it now," Nova said. "No, Mother, don't look at me like that…Derek never, _ever_ gets rough with me, not even when we do martial arts practice together…"

"You fight with him?" Teri said.

"Of course…he is a _sensei _of mine," Nova said as Sasha handed Star to Wendy for a moment as she sat down on the side of the hot spring bath, while Nova sat down on a submerged rock and lay back to let the sun shine on her breasts. "Mmmmmmm..that feels so nice," she said.

Sasha kicked her feet in the water as Ariel came over to her mother for a moment and hugged her. Nova pulled her onto her lap and asked, "Milk, dear?"

"Me becoming big," Ariel lisped as she bounced Nova's left breast around. "Big girls, bye-bye diapers, soon bye-bye Mommy baby boobies…"

Nova laughed a little as she realized, "You're saying you're getting too big?"

"Not too big yet," Ariel said as she grabbed Nova's left breast and began to nurse. Then, she pulled off and said, "but soon. Where aminal crackers?"

"Your animal crackers are in the locker room, Ariel dear," Nova said.

"Aminal crackers in yecchy locker. Just have Mommy!" Ariel said brightly as she began to nurse at her mother's other breast. Then, she looked at her mother and said, "AMINAL crackers."

"No, Animal Crackers," Nova said as she tickled Ariel on the nose.

"AMINAL CRACKERS!" Ariel yelled as she splashed her mother with rage in her eyes.

"Okay, for now, Am-i-nal crackers," Nova sighed. "Ariel, if you throw a tantrum here, we're leaving. Same as if you go potty here in the bath! The potty is out there, Ariel…and you have no clothes on, so you have no excuse for an accident in the water.."

"Get granma take me potty," said Ariel as she noticed her grandmother getting out of the tub. The women laughed as Ariel followed Teri and said, "take me potty! Mommy talking, talking, talking!"

Teri picked her up and kissed her. She helped her out of the tub, but as they began to walked out, Ariel stopped and screeched, "WHOOPSIE!"

Nova laughed as she saw rivulets of something fresh running down Ariel's legs, and a little puddle forming on the flagstones around her toes. Ariel then began to cry, but Nova and Teri fussed over her and told her they weren't mad at all….

In the meantime, Katrina Savela sat in the water, trying to keep a towel over her lap, and looking very angry and depressed as she asked Wendy, "Vat is the point of zis, anyhow?"

"Of what?"

"Of sitting here naked in front of all dese other people? I am very private person!"

"The point of an onsen, Katrina, is to sit and relax and have fun," Wendy said as she lay back in the water. "Try to lighten up a little, Katrina!"

_I vill try but I do not have to like,_ thought Katrina as she lay back.

Nova got Ariel cleaned up and then, a moment later, she gave her back to her mother while she sat in the water again with Sasha.

As she talked with Sasha, she looked up and saw a brown head of hair looking over from the men's side. Nova sighed, and said, "EXCUSE ME," and clambered up the rocks to the bamboo divider, and she yelled, "Derek, what are you _doing_? You know you're not supposed to _peek_!"

"I heard Ariel crying," Derek said as he held Alex. "Is she all right?"

"Yes, she is…she just had an accident ," Nova said as she held onto the rock, making sure that no more of her showed above the partition than her shoulders. Katrina actually got underwater when Derek's head popped up. A few other women were about to scream until they realized that he just wanted to talk with Nova. "Is Alex okay?"

"He was going on again about "don't cut my…"

Nova rolled up her eyes. "That's the last _bris_ he goes to until he's much older," she said. "Let's get home so we can get the babies taken care of. We have a lot to do this weekend.

"Yes, we sure do," Derek said.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED…..**


	3. Chapter 3

**THE FIRE IN THEIR EYES**

**A VERY Dark Star Blazers fanfic (Rating: Heavy R): THIS TALE IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!**

**PART THREE: CHAOS, LOVE, DEATH, AND A FRAME-UP**

**By Frederick P. "Freddo" Kopetz**

**Thanks to "Yuki Wildstar," Gail Kopetz, and Ami Meitsu for ideas contributed to this chapter**

* * *

**I. A GAME OF CARDS….**

**Earth**

**Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Stephen Sandor and Diane Henson's House**

**Thursday August 4, 2208**

**1421 Hours**

* * *

The morning had involved a work session aboard the _Argo_, which sat out in the open now at a long dock at the EDF Yokosuka Space Naval Station..

There, Commander Stephen Sandor, Lieutenant Harper (at the helm), Commodore Derek Wildstar, Commander Nova Wildstar, and Lieutenant Commander Diane Henson had spent the morning running computer simulations of different full-up power space warps, including a long, mock continuous warp, all on the _Argo's_ First bridge, and all to test the repaired main computer system.

Finally, at 1300 Hours, they pronounced the test a success, and reported to Commanding General Singleton that the _Argo_ was, at last, fully repaired, and would be ready for duty again in ten days, after resupply and some tuning of the ship's systems. Takeoff time for their new mission, involving analysis of the Sun, was set for Wednesday, August 17th, at 0900 Hours Tokyo Megalopolis time, after the Star Force's personnel list was fully filled up.

"Thirteen days," Derek said as they spoke on the bridge afterwards. "I can't wait to go."

"We'll be back from our honeymoon then," said Diane as she looked at Steve.

Derek looked at Nova. "When do you start Medical School?"

"It's been changed to the beginning of September on Alex and Ariel's first birthday," Nova said. "But they do want me to report for orientation on Wedenesday, August 31, guys."

"The mission will just be ten days," Sandor said. "We should have you home by then. Are you going to have the kids stay at your parents' place again, Nova?"

Nova looked at Derek, who nodded. "Well, since we were planning to make a port of call on Centaurus, we were actually thinking of bringing them with us this time," Derek said. "They'd stay with us in our cabin, sleeping together in a little camp bed."

"We just graduated them out of cribs and into their own beds earlier this week," Nova said. "They have their own rooms now, too."

"Almost a year old now," sighed Diane. "It's hard to believe, Nova. I still remember seeing you as pregnant. In fact, I occassionally look at you and think you _are _pregnant."

Nova sighed, looking at her breasts. "They're still a little…big…because they still nurse every now and then. They both made up their minds they want to stop nursing by the time they hit a year old; and I agree with that initiative of theirs and have been giving them a cup more and more and more. They "don't want to be babies anymore"."

"That's cute," said Harper from his post.

* * *

Later on that afternoon, after Nova and Diane changed from their uniforms to civilian clothes, Nova and Derek picked up Alex and Ariel from the daycare center at Central Hosp ital, picked Jonathan up at Foxworth Manor (where he had been visiting with Michelle and Katrina) and then they went to Sandor's house, not far from their own.

Alex and Ariel had needed lunch, which Nova provided in the form of baby food in the kitchen. Then, after they grabbed at her breasts, Nova went into a spare bedroom to get comfortable, undress and nurse them. There, she sat naked with Alex and Ariel and gave them a bath in her lap with the help of a small basin on the bed as they nursed. Nova came out a while later, adjusting her dark red top and summery rolled-up jeans while kicking back on one of her pink house slippers, and she said, "Well, they're asleep."

"Great; you missed the first three hands of Blackjack, Mom. I'm taking the pot," snapped Jonathan, who sat there in a black Dirty Name Five rock band T-shirt, tattered cutoff shorts, and bare feet.

"You are not!" Derek said to his eldest adpted son.

"Am too, Dad," said Jonathan. "I won ten credits. Enough for a Type 100 recon plane model kit."

"You keep on building those models," Stephen Sandor teased, "And maybe Derek will be seeing you in Engineering rather than flight ops."

"I know how to fly already," Jonathan snorted.

"No you don't; you didn't solo yet," Nova said. "Who's dealing this round?"

"You do it, hon, my hands hurt," whined Diane while she sat there in the bare-shouldered sundress she had on, wiggling her toes as she sat there barefoot with her feet hunched up against the stool she sat on.

Nova gave Diane a dirty look but she took the cards and began to shuffle them even while Diane giggled and then tried to play footsie with Nova under the table. Nova gave her a little kick and said, "Stop that, Diane…go play footsie with Steve! He just has his socks on."

"Can I play footsie with _Derek_?" Diane teased (since Derek was barefoot under the table).

"NO," Nova, Steve and Derek all said in unison (while Nova, incidentally, had kicked off her house slipper to run her toes up Derek's ankle under the card table). Nova winked at Derek and then kicked on her slipper while she cut the cards and dealt.

"Explain the logic behind this card game again?" said Diane. "Not sure I fully get it!"

As Nova dealt, Derek cleared his throat and said, "It's partly luck and partly mathematics. The object of the game is to get a hand as close as possible to '21' without going over, which is called 'Getting Busted'. You get two cards at first. If you want to take a chance at more cards to try and get closer to the elusive 21, you say 'hit me' and the dealer shoots you another card. You can either keep what you have next turn by saying 'stand' or call for more cards. An Ace can count as either a one or an eleven. Numbered cards count as their numbers, face cards like the King, Queen & Jack, count as ten. Mininmum bet is a credit. Maximum is five credits. We are playing to win a few bucks here. Nova, start dealing!"

"Right," she said, flipping out cards. She glanced at her own hand; it was a Seven of clubs and Eight of hearts. _Fifteen,_ she thought. _I'll need to hit myself. _

Derek got an Ace of Hearts and a Five of Spades. _Sixteen, _he thought. _Maybe….._

Diane chortled at her cards. A Ten of Clubs and Nine of Hearts. "Let's see what everyone else gets," she sang.

"Mine suck," Jonathan said. He got a pair of twos; Diamonds and Hearts.

"Jonathan, you're not supposed to give away your hand," Nova said as she reached down and unpopped her jeans while dealing herself a Three of Spades. She now had eighteen.

"Now why are you doing that?" Derek said.

"Getting hot and I might be getting some water weight gain…near my time of the month," Nova sighed. "I knew I should have worn that loose Gypsy skirt, but IQ-9 was on the prowl."

"Why would that have been a problem?" Derek said with a wink.

"Derek, you know why. He lifts skirts, and…well, when it's hot, you know what I usually wear under that particular skirt."

"Yeah," chortled Jonathan. "It's the skirt Mom likes to be naked under."

"You horrible child!" Nova teased back as she suddenly heard a strange sound. "Steve…..Sandor…does your chandelier always creak like that?"

"What do you mean?" said Sandor.

"It's above my head," Nova said as she looked up and saw it swinging. "And I don't….like…the…sound it is…"

"….making!" Nova screeched as she saw it falling.

Nova kicked back her stool, dropped her cards, and did a backflip just as it crashed down.

Nova ended up across the living room, out of her slippers (which went flying), and with her jeans down around her knees, but alive and intact as everyone looked at the fallen chandelier in shock.

Wondering what had happened, Derek ran to Nova's side and helped her pull up her jeans and pop them closed as they all felt a sudden blast of cold…..

…and heard weird, weird, deep laughter coming from nowhere.

"EKOGARU, you COWARD!" Derek snapped. "Why don't you come out and show yourself, you…you…FREAK?"

"Mom…did he just try to kill you?" said Jonathan.

"Jonathan, what does it look like?" Nova said as she trembled and held both Derek and Jonathan.

"There was nothing wrong with that chandelier," said Sandor as he looked at it. "I inspected it myself last week."

"Well, obviously….he can wreck chandeliers," said Diane. "It's a good thing it didn't get me…."

"You," Nova said angrily. "You…weren't the target, Diane! But why, Derek? Why does he hate me so much? And why does he hate poor Katrina so much?"

"Maybe it's because you did so much to bring him down?" Derek said.

"Then he should be after _you, too_, Derek!" Nova snapped.

"Hmmmm…maybe we should call Aliscea," said Sandor. "Maybe she knows what is going on…"

"That's a good idea, Steve," Derek said. "Nova, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said. "Just very, very….shaken up…"

Then, Nova held Derek…and she just began to cry. Derek stroked her hair to comfort her, as he thought, _Ekogaru, when we catch up with you someday….you'll pay for this, you rotten bastard!_

As Nova wept, Sandor tried to call Aliscea Rosstowski as Diane looked at the chandelier in fear and anger. _Now, what else is going to happen to us?_ Diane thought.

* * *

**II. A WEDDING DAY**

**Earth**

**Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Saints Cyril and Methodius Russian Orthodox Church**

**Saturday August 6, 2208**

**0900 Hours**

* * *

The day began early for Stephen Sandor and Diane Henson's wedding.

After much in the way of preparations, and after a rehearsal dinner the previous day, the guests and wedding party were assembled around the church at about nine in the morning, waiting for the proceedings to begin.

There were to be two Matrons of Honor; Sasha, who would be serving at the church service, in the open, and, as they were told, another noble from Iscandar, whom they would meet in secret on the Iscandarian Embassy grounds where the reception would take place.

Sasha stood in the church in the frilly royal blue knee-length dress that she and the other bridesmaids would be wearing. She was escorted by both Deke and her father, Grand Admiral Alex Wildstar, who had recently arrived from Iscandar on the spacecraft carrier _Princess Astra_, which was actually docked in secret at an outdoor dock on the island where the Iscandarian Embassy was. "I'm so excited!" she said in a soft voice to both Deke and Alex. "Especially, Daddy, the news that…."

"Hush, Sasha. It's not even to be spoken of anywhere except the Embassy grounds. It's very secret!" Alex said.

"What's very secret?" Nova Wildstar asked as she came up on Derek's arm. She was in her royal blue bare-shouldered dress, which came down to her knees and left her legs bare….with it, she wore satin sandals dyed to match her dress. Derek, like all of the other groomsmen, with the exception of Alex, who wore his uniform, was in a complementary civilian tux in grey and blue.

"It's so damn secret they can't even tell you, yet," said Deke with a grin.

"Oh, fiddlesticks," Nova said as she rolled up her eyes.

"Vat is de secret?" asked Katrina as she came up in her frilly blue dress (which she considered a bit tacky, but, the thing was comfortable and cool to wear in this ungoldy heat, she had to admit that…)

"If we told you, it wouldn't be a secret any more," Sasha giggled.

"You make fun of me," said Katrina.

"Just teasing," Sasha said.

"Excuse me," said Katrina. "Nova, tell the others I will be back in a minute."

And, at that, Katrina stalked off, angry.

* * *

A few minutes later, Foxy found her sitting outside, all alone, her sandals off, glaring at some cattail grass in a vacant lot near the church.

"Katrina," said Foxy, who also wore a tux like the others.

""Yes?" Katrina snapped. "You tell me why I should go back. To hell with _all _of them! To hell with Diane! Even to hell with Nova! All of them have their little secret they will not tell me about….."

"Nova was just told herself, silly! She told me and I can tell you if you will keep it under your hat," said Foxy.

"HAT?" snapped Katrina. "I am not wearing the stupid hat."

"Just an expression," laughed Foxy. "It means 'can you keep a secret?'"

"Yes, I guess I can," said Katrina.

"When we get to the Iscandarian Embassy later on, the….the head bridesmaid and matron of honor, taking over for Sasha…is her mother."

"Her mother?" said Katrina.

"Queen Starsha herself. Alex Wildstar convinced her to leave Iscandar for once and to actually come to Earth with him. She is remaining in secret at the Iscandarian Embassy, which is like sovereign Iscandarian terrirtory, until the big moment. Nova just found out herself from Alex, her brother in law," said Foxy.

"Starsha. Will she be able to know who I am?" snapped Katrina.

"No," said Foxy. "Sasha told me she has agreed not to use her amazing powers here on Earth. She…she does not want HIM to know she is here…"

"The Dark Lord?" whispered Katrina.

"Yes. Even she fears him. Would you please come back now?"

"All right," said Katrina. "I will. But one more insult, and home I go and drag you vid me. Is that clear?"

"It is," said Foxy with a sigh.

"And I do not like zis…frilly dress, either! It is STUPID! Who got this silly, frilly, stupid dresses?"

"Sasha," sighed Foxy. "With help from her Auntie Nova."

"It figures," said Katrina with a grunt.

* * *

A while later, the group gathered in the church to begin.

Sasha was the bridesmaid closest to the altar, followed by Nova, then by Teri Forrester, then by Wendy Glitchman, with Katrina being the last one. At the groomsmens's side of the altar stood Alex Wildstar, followed by Deke, then Derek, then Karl Forrester, and last of all, by Foxy. The uneven number was because both Alex and Deke would be escorting Sasha during the church service, with Alex then escorting Starsha later on during the receptiion at the embassy.

The recessional began; it was a haunting Russian hymn as Sandor came down the aisle, in his best, most formal EDF dress uniform. He took his place at the altar before the priest, thinking, _I was down here once before, in a private ceremony, years ago, with my first wife. I dated very few people since then. It's ironic; Alex is here, all the way from Iscandar, and he's going to have his Queen at his side soon…and one of the girls I dated for just one date is now one of my best friends and is happily married to Alex's little brother…and Diane? Diane used to be his girlfriend! Yeah, what a wonderfully complex and tangled web this is! _

Sandor came down and took his place, taking an about-face before the altar to face outwards. Alex smiled at him, and he smiled back. Then, from the ladies' side, Sasha smiled at him, and Nova winked. He looked over at the men's side and saw Derek smiling. Then, he saw his old friends from the _Argo_ in the front pews in EDF uniforms; Dash, Eager, Cory Conroy, Doctor Sane and Mimi, IQ-9, Mark and Holly Venture, Paul Rosstowski and Aliscea, Domon with his latest girlfriend Eiko, Kitano, and Paul Hemsford and his fiancee', along with Jere "Brew" Marrable and Gabrielle "Bangs" Capistrano, along with the EDF Commander, his wife, and General Stone, sitting there with his wife, who was crying softly.

The organ music changed, and then, young David Forrester came up with a cushion with the rings on it, followed by cute little Alex Wildstar III. Everyone went "awwww" as the little boy toddled up, helped along by his young uncle David (little Alex was his nephew). Both boys wore tuxedos like the groomsmen with shorts, although David had on knee socks and nice shoes with his, while Alex had little sandals on his bare feet.

Then, there came three flower girls, in little matching versions of the bridesmaids' dresses (although with flat sandals). The oldest flower girl, carrying the basket, was Aurora Forrester, who was supervising the other two.

The second flower girl was a cute, pert little three-year old beauty with dark green hair named Traci Yussupov. Her recently widowed mother, Lina Yussupov, was a friend of Doctor James Anderson's. Lina's spouse Grigori Yussupov had recently died on a secret mission for Anderson. Word was beginning to leak out that he had died in some kind of battle with the Spectran terrorists out near Alpha Centauri while testing a new type of fighter plane. Lina wept quietly; Doctor Anderson knew….but her daughter did not know…that she had a case of space radiation sickness that was coming out of remission. Lina Yussupov would be saying farewell to her little "Princess" Traci within just a few heartbreaking months. Traci, without knowing it, would be bound for an orphanage for a time…but Anderson had plans for Traci when she became older…he had great plans for his little "Princess" as he thought, _Let her be happy today, enjoy the food, the nice dress, and dance. Because, soon….._

The third and last flower girl, who had to be helped a lot by Aurora and Princess, was, of course, Ariel, who was giggling with her eyes on her mother throughout her walk down the aisle as she helped to scatter white rose petals. One of them fell right on her sandal-clad toes, and she giggled. She made the group laugh again when she got up there and pulled up her dress for a look at her bare legs, underpants, and belly button until Princess said, "No! Only babies do that, Ariel! Bad girl! Go to your mommy!"

Nova pulled Ariel in with a smile as she hugged her and gently eased her skirt back down as she squiggled in her mother's arms. Nova smiled when she saw that at the men's side, Derek was having problems controlling a squiggly Alex. From the second pew, beside Michelle and Felicia, Jonathan smiled at the group and waved at his little sister, who waved back at big brother.

Finally, Diane Henson herself came out, on the arm of her aged grandfather, Allyn.

Her basic bridal dress was a near-sleeveless, satiny dress in pure white that was of a similar style to the bridesmaids' summer dresses. However, the bodice of Diane's gown had beautiful, embroidered decorations on it, especially around her bosom. Diane had her hair up, and she wore a veil and crown decorated with silk roses in white; she and Katrina were the only members of the bridal party who wore roses, even though, of course, Katrina's roses were a soft white color to offset her stunning royal blue dress. Of course, all of the other members of the bridal party wore white orchids, all the way down to the flower girls, namely little Aurora, Princess, and the even smaller Ariel.

Diane wore white gloves, and her dress, again like the bridesmaids', stopped a bit above the knee in the heat, leaving her legs bare for coolness, along with her feet, which were almost bare in the light sandals she wore, like the bridesmaids and the flower girls. However, unlike the bridesmaids, Diane's dress had a long train behind it, and it was carried as she went down the aisle of the Russian Orthodox Church by IQ-9, who had been firmly told by Derek, Nova, Steve, and her to put a sock in his bad behavior today. IQ agreed to do so for her (even though his strange processor-addled mind was thinking of one thousand and one perverted things to do to poor Nova at the wedding!)

Finally, Diane stood beside Steve, and they joined hands as the wedding ceremony began.

The Orthodox priest, Metropolitan Viktor Melnyk, led the group in a prayer as he looked very important and impressive behind his dark beard.

The prayer was in Russian, as it befitted Stephen Sandor's Russian heritage.

Katrina was shocked to find that some of the words sounded similar to some of the words in Cometine!

_Why is zis?_ Katrina thought. _Why does the Terran Language Russian sort of sound like my own language? This is most peculiar!_

"_Bozhe Moi, Bozhe Moi, Bozhe Moi,"_ repeated Diane and Steve as they knelt on cushions by the altar and said, "My God, My God, My God," three times in Russian.

Then, they sang a slow song in Russian, after at which time, they stood to accept Communion in bread and wine from the priest. From there, they knelt again, said their vows (in Russian, in English, and in Japanese), and then the priest had an altar boy crown them with two crowns, symbolizing martyrdom and self-sacrifice.

Several prayers were sung, and a few passages of Scripture were read; one by the priest, one by Admiral Alex Wildstar, one by Sasha, one by Derek, and the last by Nova.

Then, Steve and Diane helped each other up off the kneeling cushions near the altar, and they stood and listened as the priest said, "By the power invested in me by the Patriarch of Moskva, known as Moscow in English, I know pronounce thee man and wife. Commander Sandor, you may now kiss Mrs. Sandor in your first kiss as husband and wife."

Steve took Diane in his arms and gave her a deep, sexy kiss in front of everyone while the group applauded and some whistled. Then, with a choir singing in Russian, they joined hands and marched away from the altar to the reception, stopping along the way to have pictures taken of each other with the wedding party at some of their favorite places, such as in front of their home, on the main deck of the _Argo_ at her open dock before Gun Turret Number One out in the sun, at Heroes' Hill, and then, finally, in the government ferry jet-boat that would take them across the Bay to the island where the Iscandarian Embassy was.

* * *

**III. RECEPTION**

**Earth**

**Vicinity of the Tokyo Megalopolis**

**The Iscandarian Embassy**

**Saturday August 6, 2208**

**1215 Hours**

* * *

Upon arrival at the dock on the island, nearly everyone was shocked to see the party waiting for them at the dock; Lady Novalia, the young Ambassador, several Iscandarian guards and councillors, and….

..wearing a royal blue dress and sandals like the other bridesmaids, Queen Starsha herself, with her long hair blowing in the sea breeze.

"You….Steve…you didn't tell me Queen Starsha was on Earth!" said Diane as she stood there in shock.

"I wanted you to be surprised," said Sandor as he hugged Diane.

Alex and Starsha exchanged a hug and a kiss, and then Starsha kissed Sasha, Deke, Nova, and Derek in turn, and then kissed Jonathan and finally picked up little Alex and Ariel and kissed them. Someone then got a shot of Admiral Alex Wildstar holding little Alex Wildstar III and playing with him.

The reception would be held outdoors on the island under a pavillion with open sides near the crystalline buildings of the Embassy complex.

After some dancing, Steve handed Diane a large knife that looked more like a small sword. She posed for a picture with a cute grin on her face and her long bare legs crossed and her bridal garter showing before she clasped hands with Steve and cut the wedding cake as they stood together.

Then, the cake was doled out, and everyone took some drinks (in either champagne or non-alcoholic sparkling Cold Duck for the children and nursing mothers present) while Admiral Alex Wildstar tapped on a glass with a spoon and gave a speech with Starsha standing beside him that went like this:

"This isn't the first time, everyone, that I've spoken up for Steve as the best man at his wedding. I've known Stephen Sandor ever since our days together as classmates at the Space Fighters' Training School, and I can say that I'm probably his best friend. He and I were cadets together…." Alex decided to tease them a little, "…Ever since my kid brother there was running around the Miura Peninsula collecting bugs and my future sister-in-law was living in Boulder, Colorado, playing soccer, with freckles on her face and a dorky hairdo that made her look just like Peppermint Patty."

Everyone laughed, except for Derek and Nova, who good-naturedly booed Alex at the teasing they had received.

Starsha whispered in Alex's ear, "Alexander, is it good form to insult your family at Stephen's wedding?"

"It's called teasing, and I've been doing it to him for years," said Alex in a whisper. "The kids are gonna get it next…"

"Oh, Goddess," muttered Starsha.

"Is he drunk?" said Katrina to Foxy. "He is acting as if he is insane."

"It's called a wedding toast, and, yes, some people do act like that when they give them," said Foxy. "You should have heard how I got razzed when I married Jane."

Alex pointed at a wild-haired young man in an Iscandarian Defense Forces uniform who stood there with a pregnant young blond-haired Iscandarian woman with long blond hair who wore a light purple gown and went barefoot. "Okay. This couple here consists of my eldest son, Stephen, and his fairly new wife, Taysha. Prince Stephen is serving in space with us now as the Executive Officer of the spacecraft carrier _Princess Astra,_ and he's a lot smarter now than he was as a kid, when we worried about him when he took forever to learn how to talk!"

"Hey, Dad!" yelled Stephen Wildstar. "It only took me a month and a half!"

"Then, he was found on a beach by me with Taysha a bit later on, after the defeat of Invidia…." Alex said.

"But we were engaged!" chirped Taysha as Sasha groaned to herself, thinking, _Was I following some kind of weird family pattern on that beach when Auntie Nova found me with Deekee?_

"Now, Taysha there is going to be the second family member of mine to give us grandchildren," said Alex. "Astra…well….Stephen's sister Astra is still alone on Iscandar, sulking…"

"Meditating and trying to amend her life," said Starsha.

"Sulking," said Alex with a wink at Derek.

"Trying to correct her actions!" insisted Starsha.

"Sulking and acting like a five-year old brat," said Alex as Jonathan, Astra's former adopted son, nodded enthusiastically. He was _enjoying_ this.

"Now, there is our youngest daughter, Sasha," said Alex. "Sasha, Sasha, Sasha. You obviously got pregnant not long after you got married, darling."

"Yeah…not long before that Gamilon creep Von Delvitz ran his stomach up against my sword on Gamilon," said Deke.

"Please don't mention that horrible duel again!" said Starsha.

"I didn't start it, your Highness. He did. But _I _finished it!" Deke said. "He used you, Sasha. Long ago. I had to kill the bastard!"

"Thank you, Deekee," said Sasha. "Thank the Goddess that I'm not _your _cuddly toy who gets left out in the rain like a choo-choo train, like in that old song by The Beatles" said Sasha. "Dad, introduce Star!"

"Okay, Princess," said Alex. "My youngest daughter has given us a grandchild, Princess Star Wakefield. Isn't she cute?" said Alex as Sasha held up her baby, who immediately began to fiddle with her breast and whimper. Some in the group laughed as Sasha then laughed and quickly loosened her dress, bared a breast, and got Star up to her breast in a hurry as she sat down.

"She's also as hungry as a pig," said Sasha as she blushed while feeding her daughter. Sasha then got pulled over and Deke whispered in her ear, "Sasha, the Beatles didn't do that song you quoted. That was a song by the Monkees!"

"What's the difference?" said Sasha.

"The Beatles had more staying power. I don't know how you got your paws on a Monkees' album, Sasha," Deke said.

"You gave it to me, Deekee," said Sasha. "You said you liked Mike. The guy with the weird wool cap."

"Oh," he said.

Alex tapped on his glass again as he said, "Okay, now that I have just digressed and razzed my entire family, except for Her Highness here, whom I razz only behind closed doors…"

"Do you?" teased Starsha.

"Never mind, Fluffy," said Alex.

"_Fluffy_!" said Starsha. "You swore you'd never call me that in public, _Honey Bunny_!"

"Arrrghhh!" said Alex as everyone laughed at Queen Starsha grinning at him.

"Now we know their pet names for each other," Stephen Sandor laughed in Diane's ear. This is rich!"

"Yeah, we can insult them," said Diane. "Fluffy! Peppermint! You two look alike!" yelled Diane.

Both Starsha and Nova looked at Diane and screeched, "You be quiet!" in chorus.

Alex then got everyone to listen as he looked out at the group and said, "Okay. Now, the subject is Stephen, here. The groom, mind you. Not my kid, who is named after him. I've known Stephen here, since….since we were in the Space Fighters' Training School back between 2186 and 2190…when we endured Plebe Year together and had all sorts of adventures and hijinks together as Midshipmen. There was that time when I got Steve to open up a little and participate in Field Week, and…"

"Alex, don't get into that," said Steve, looking at his now 39-year old friend. He was blushing.

"Then, we often ended up assigned near each other," continued Alex. "Now, the wedding business….now, Steve was through this before, some years ago, back in 2196, when he married a young lady named Tricia Pilgrim. He was twenty-seven when he married Tricia, who was just twenty-two. Now, Tricia did not treat him well….and….after a year of hell for him, Steve and Tricia split up and got divorced…"

"Careful the talk about Tricia, guys," Eager said as he came up. "Because Tricia's here now…"

"What?" said Sandor as he began to sweat. "She's…alive? I thought she died back during the bombings!"

"No. She's here as part of the Marine Secuity Detail, and he's….her husband, is here, too…" said Dash as _he_ came up, straight from a tour of duty as the Captain of the Space Frigate _Admiral Walter Strickland_. "Her new husband was my executive officer on the _Strickland_."

"What's her husband's name?" said Eager.

"Tony," said Nova. "Now, can we get back to letting Alex finish his toast?"

"Yeah," said Alex. "Anyway, I wish everyone lots of happiness….sorry about the digression….Steve didn't have a lot of happiness after he and Tricia split up…he went out on one date with a young lady who later married another of one his best friends," he said, looking at Nova, who nodded, looked at Stephen, and looked at Derek. "Then, he had some years alone with his work, until he met Diane, who, I must say, is now, obviously lighting up his life….making him smile, making him happy, and…"

"Can we finish up, Alex?" laughed Sandor.

"Okay, everyone, let's drink to Mister and Mrs. Sandor! Cheers! _Kampai!_"

"CHEERS! KAMPAI!" everyone yelled as they drank their toasts. Then, applause came as Steve and Diane got up to dance as a couple for the first time to the strains of "_Never My Love", _an old twentieth-century song they both liked. Tears ran down their cheeks as they danced close with each other, hugging each other and holding each other with utter love and trust on their faces. They shared a long kiss at the end of the song, and then, "_Scarlet Scarf"_ started, and Alex got up to dance with Starsha, Derek danced with Nova, Deke danced with Sasha, Foxy danced with Katrina, and Karl and Teri Forrester danced with each other, along with the other couples there. Even little "Princess" Traci Yussupov got up to dance with little Alex, while Ariel danced with her little uncle David Forrester.

At the end of the song, David make everyone laugh when he looked Ariel in the eye and said, "Can I marry you?"

Ariel giggled and said, "You have to ask my Mommy!" Ariel dragged David along and said, "Mommy! Daddy! Davy wants marry me? Can he?"

Derek laughed and said, "Guys, you're a bit young!"

"No, Ariel, no David, you guys are way too young, and you're related too closely," said Nova.

"Princess" Traci then chirped, "Then, can I marry your son, Mrs. Nova?"

"No, dear…you too are too young, too," Nova said as she kissed little Traci on the head.

"aaaawwwwwwww," said "Princess" Traci Yussupov.

* * *

A while later, Sandor sat holding hands with Diane as she asked, "Tell us about some of your prior significant others again?"

"I'm not sure I'm ready to go into that," Steve said. "I mean…Tricia, I don't want to think about that much..and I haven't seen her since 2197…and I don't know if I want to see her," he added.

"Okay, just go back a little further, then," Derek suggested as he held Nova's hand. "Tell us what happened the one time you went out with Nova…."

"Derek, I…I don't know if I can call that a date or not," Nova stammered, blushing.

"You want to tell us?" Derek said as he and Alex grinned at her.

"It was a dinner together…that's all…" Nova laughed.

"I mentioned it before, Diane…I told you the whole story back in May of 2207 on our formal first date," Sandor said.

"Oh, yes," Diane remembered as her mind flashed back for a moment to May 5, 2207….about fourteen months ago….

…_.Sandor sipped at his ale as he said, "Now, back to the last time I was here. It was the summer of 2199, right after the Paladin had left for the Battle of Pluto. After that, I was assigned to the Yamato's reconstruction, and I met an old protégé' of mine there."_

"_Who was it?" said Diane._

"_The girl was more interested in medicine than technical items, but she was no slouch at computer programming, either. I taught an advanced course in Gaussian Logic for two semesters as a guest instructor at a private college in North America and she was absolutely brilliant. But very young. And that was the problem. I felt too old around her then, when I met her when she was eighteen, and she had just turned twenty-one when we met up again. Our time for dinner was a sorta-kinda date," said Sandor. "We had been working together on the __Yamato__, and, well, even though dinner went well…"_

_"Did she know about your…uh?" said Diane as she tapped one of Steve's bionic arms._

"_Yeah," said Steve. "Never mattered to her, though. In fact, she helped design two sets I used. But, it never felt right even thinking of dating someone close to ten years younger than me. As we ate and talked, she kind of came to the same decision. She was nice about it; even kissed me goodnight on the cheek," said Steve. "And I danced with her that night," said Sandor as he watched some couples on the dance floor by the bar. "Only time, until her wedding, of course. Kid even gave me another kiss on her wedding day. On the cheek. Very chaste girl…."_

"_Well, who is it or was it?" said Diane._

"_You two went at it once in the ring," said Steve with an almost warped smile._

"_Nova?" said Diane. "You went out with her once?"_

"_Once," said Steve. "It was even more awkward than this time," he laughed. "She even had on that same dress she wore on the way to Iscandar when Tinwit lifted her skirt in the wardroom that time. We were working together, we thought, why not go out to eat one night? Then, it went weird. Almost as bad as with Tricia, but…"_

"_Who's Tricia?" said Diane._

"_Only Alex and Nova know about her," said Sandor. "My ex-wife. I was with her for a year around 2196. We divorced the next year when we found we couldn't have children together, and…"_

"_Steve, I'm sorry," said Diane as she patted his hand. "What happened?"_

"_My fault…part of the accident," said Steve. "They got…parts of me back together. They work…Tricia and I had a more or less normal marriage, except for the fact that we couldn't do that one thing. That one simple thing."_

"_What?"_

"_Have a child together," said Sandor. "That was important to Tricia, and when Nova brought up the same topic…just saying she'd like to have kids someday, but was in no rush for it…" _

"_Did she know?" said Diane. "About you, I mean?"_

"_No," said Steve. "She hadn't…ever read that part of my medical records. When she did a day or two later, she apologized to me left and right for innocently bringing up the topic. She never mentioned children around me again, until after we found out she was pregnant and she woke up from that tube, that is. Even then, she tries not to say much, but…"_

"_Her stomach does the talking for her," giggled Diane._

"_Yeah. I always looked out for her afterwards, like a kid sister. Really stunk almost seeing her get killed that time on the Cosmo-DNA unit by that gas on the way home from Iscandar….and…"_

* * *

Nova brought them back to reality when she said, "I had boots on, Steve. And we danced together that night…"

"Close dance?" Derek said.

"A chaste close dance before the appetizer came," Nova said. "He didn't put his hand on…uh….certain parts of me…like you do," Nova added, trying to hold back giggles.

"Like I'm doing now?" Derek teased as he reached over to her bottom and goosed her.

"DEREK!" Nova said, giving him a light slap on the wrist as she laughed. "Down, boy! BAD doggie!"

"Awwww…." Derek said as everyone laughed.

"You can put it there later if we dance again," Nova primly whispered in her husband's ear. "And, later on, if we spend the night here in the guest quarters, you can put it in _all_ sorts of interesting places…"

"Mind if I tell the story, Nova?" said Steve. "No offense, my friend, but you're giggling through half of it…"

"Go ahead," Nova said.

"Okay," Steve said. "I was teaching Math and Computer Science at the University of Colorado. Boulder Campus, in the underground city of the Denver Megalopolis. It was an Advanced Course, two semesters, in Gaussian Logic. I had the typical mixed back of students in the class, some of whom were ROTC cadets; most in the class were seniors, some were juniors, and there were a few sophomores. And, there was this single Freshman, just eighteen, an ROTC Plebe whom I had to stop telling to do the Plebe Brace in class…"

"What's a Plebe Brace?" Teri Forrester said, puzzled.

Nova said, "Allow me to demonstrate. Plebe year, the upperclassman ROTC cadets would often make you sit at attention, like this, chin against your neck, back very straight, shoulders up….it's a painful position, and as you can see, it makes you look vaguely stupid. You had to go nice and stiff so you would be stiff and military, particularly when they yelled in your ear. Means of discipline; I had to do it to underclassman cadets, too, when I became an upperclassman."

"What was your highest cadet rank, Nova?" Deke asked.

"Midshipman Lieutenant," Nova replied. "And that is how a Plebe often had to sit in school…"

"That looks cruel," Teri said, shaking her head. "If I had known they were doing that to you…."

"Mother, let's not start this again," Nova sighed.

"Okay," said Sandor. "I have my class; we don't have to have military discipline there, and we have these older kids and this scared eighteen-year old Plebe, who, I wonder how she had the math prerequisites to get into my class…."

"I tested right through several basic math courses in college due to independent study in my senior year of high school and during the summer before I went to Plebe Basic Training," Nova said. "So, there I was, in the back of the class…"

"And I soon realized she was smarter than most of my class at her young age," Sandor said. "When she took Gaussian Logic II the next semester, the first semester of her sophomore year, I noticed the same thing. Someone that bright stays in your memory for years; she and I became friends by the end of that second course. Then, I was reassigned, and I didn't run into Nova again until the summer of 2199 when we were assigned together on the _Yamato_ project."

"At which point, I agreed to go out to dinner with him," Nova said. "It went…well…like this," she said as she began to narrarate the story….

_Stephen and Nova found a rather nice place to go to in the Underground Tokyo Megalopolis that night after they took a Tube Train from the underground base where the Yamato was being reconstructed._

_Sandor had on his dress greens with a white ascot. Nova had on a light pink dress, trimmed in cranberry, with cranberry-colored boots. She smiled when Steve pulled out a chair for her after they danced for a bit after they had enjoyed some cocktails._

_After they ordered (some of the quasi-artificial food which was about the best available at the time), they began to talk over their appetizers._

"_My mother wants me to date all of these annoying people who have money," Nova said. "Some are older, some are younger. Most of them have no intellectual wherewithal whatsoever, except for two architects Mother is trying to set me up with."_

"_What's the name of one of them?" Steve asked._

"_Len Rosenberg. Now, he's somewhat bright; his work has been described in some of the journals in the field," Nova said as she stirred her coffee. "He's supposed to be really good in the use of prestressed concrete."_

"_And how would you know that?" Sandor grinned._

"_Net Searches. I tend to do searches on the names of anyone my mother tries to set me up." Nova smiled. "I also did a search on you, Steve. You've got quite a career. How old are you?"_

"_I was born in 2168," he said. "I'm currently thirty-one."_

"_I've got ten years on you," Nova said. "I was a February 2178 baby. My birthday is February 3__rd__." Nova looked at him as she set her chin on her hands. "My mother….well…."_

"_What about your mother?" Steve said._

"_I told you…she's trying to set me up with every Tom, Dick, Joe, Toshio, and Kazuo out there. The last one she tried to get me to date was this slightly strange lawyer named Kazuo Foxworth."_

"_You don't like lawyers?" Steve said._

"_I prefer scientists or military people, even though my Dad is a lawyer," Nova said as the faux shrimp cocktail came. It was made of cultured and reshaped stuff that didn't quite taste like shrimp, but tasted more like ersatz crabmeat. "The thing is, Mother has this thing against military people…she does not want me to get into a line of work that is too dangerous, while I want some adventure in my life."_

"_Adventure," Sandor said. "Nova, you are young, smart, you have stars in your eyes. Do you know that war is not an adventure?"_

_Nova sighed. "You forget I was on the 225 with Avatar and his crew in the Sickbay out at Pluto. I have some space legs, and…as a nurse, I get to see the messes that the Gamilons make of people in battle. You work with machines and the like; but you see another side of war when some young man screams…and his bloody arm comes off and ends up in your lap while you are sitting on a stool taking his vitals. Or when you are trying to clean up someone and trying to prevent a periontitis case when someone presents with his colon torn open and there is crap all over the place," Nova said softly. "That's my war so far. I'm trained to run an analysis sensor suite or a combat radar and to do survey work…I'm also a recon pilot….but, so far, my war has consisted of…cleaning up messes."_

"_Nova, what do you want out of life?" Sandor asked._

"_To become a medical doctor someday. If Humanity somehow lives another ten years, that is. Maybe we'll…figure out…something. I heard scuttlebutt that two Midshpmen found something on Mars. It might be alien."_

"_Have you met the Midshipmen?" Steve asked._

"_Not yet…they've been kind of keeping them apart from everyone. With my luck, I'll meet them, and one of them will be ravishinhgly cute and I will fall hopelessly in love with him at first sight…," Nova said._

"Hey! Isn't that what happened?" Derek laughed as he grabbed Nova's hands.

"I was looking at you the longest," Nova said. "Remember, you and Mark first presented to me as a _gestalt_," Nova said. "Sort of a two-headed monster. Both staring at my legs and face like wolves from an old Tex Avery cartoon…"

"So, how come you aren't now Mrs. Sandor?" Mark Venture asked.

"I'd like to know that, too," Diane said.

Nova shook her head and sighed while Steve said, "She brought up wanting to have kids. Not now, not immediately…she said, but someday. With the problem I had then…not having all of the working equipment needed and being on hormone therapy, that was sort of a deal-breaker. That, and the fact that I could see that for me, she was just too young. Oh, Nova, you had seen a lot, but…well…you just seemed too…innocent. Diane is a little older, although not by much." Diane was two years older than Nova and Derek were, and, given her harder life, she had seen more.

She had seen things she hadn't even told Steve…or, for that matter, Derek about yet.

"So, how did the date go?" said Mark.

"Nice, even though we both seemed to catch on that maybe this would not go anywhere," Nova said. "I did tell my mother about you, Steve."

"Yes, I know, you told me that," he sighed. "You also told me she spent close to an hour…"

"…screaming at me," Nova said. "We broke it off the next day and agreed to remain friends…after you, of course, told me you could not have kids, and I apologized for being such a jerk and bringing it up…" Little Alex ran up a moment later, bare-chested and barefoot, wearing just his little tux shorts. "Where's your nice tux top?" Nova said.

Teri laughed and said. "He was decorating himself with spaghetti, so, off came his top. And he wanted to have those sandals off."

Alex climbed into his mother's lap and tugged at his pants. "Pantsies _off!_"

"No, honey, not nice right now," Nova whispered. "On the beach later on, we'll _all_ get to take off all of our clothes and play in the water and sand. Okay?"

Nova kissed little Alex as Sandor smiled at her and said, "Pity, too. You looked so cute in that little yellow nurse's dress and your little peep-toe operating theatre clogs when we broke it off," Sandor sighed. "You had nice legs then. You still have them now…"

Nova nodded (as she sat there with Derek's hand on her bare knee beneath the hem of her dress). "Thank you, Stephen. Then, Derek, Mark, they let you two out of the _225_ a day later, and that's when we ran into each other in the corridor. That's when you two looked….and then when we all began talking…"

"And about that time, summer of 2199, is when I met Patrick," said a woman about Sandor's age who came up in Space Marine greens.

Steve looked up, utterly shocked to see his ex-wife Tricia looking at him. Diane felt very jealous for a moment as the two of them grabbed each other's hands and gave them a friendly squeeze. Then, Tricia, a dark-haired woman with short, boyish hair, looked at Steve and said, "Did you get fixed up? Is that _your_ kid?" she teased as she looked at Alex crawling around in Nova's lap while Derek tickled his son.

"No, he's one of mine," Derek said. "I'm Commodore Derek Wildstar…the genuine article. The lady beside me is Commander Nova Wildstar, author of several medical journal articles and my right-hand woman through all sorts of adventures…"

"…with those funny, adventurous Star Blazers," Nova laughed. "_You're_ Trish…"

"Trish Seaman now," Tricia said as she introduced her husband, dark and handsome in his EDF peacoat and blues. "This is Lieutenant Commander Tony Seaman, my husband."

Tony then yelled, "Hey, you guys, come here!" and two twin boys, who looked to be about eight now, ran up in grey suits, along with a younger girl, who seemed to be about five, who had on a frllly pink dress and white sandals. "These are our sons Gary and Bill, born in late 2199, and this is our daughter Tina, born in 2203."

"Pleased to meet you," Nova said. "I'm…."

"Ma'am, you need no introduction," said Tony. He looked at Sandor and said, "So, Trish, this is your ex?"

"Yeah, although I'm wondering how it might have been had things been different," said Tricia. "Oh, well, Tony…Steve…such is life…" Trish then laughed as her son Gary began to playfully punch her. She got up, put up her hands, and let him bop at her hands with his fists as she held him off, martial-arts style. Bill got bratty and decided to try the same thing with Nova, who surprised him by fending him off the same way with a free hand.

Then, Doctor James Anderson, looking quite grim, came up walking a boy along by one hand. He had on a shorty suit with a tie, knee-high socks, and dress shoes, and he was already learning how to carry himself with a rather stiff, grim carriage that looked arresting in a boy who looked to be just three and a half.

"Doctor, glad you could make it," said Sandor. "Who's the boy?"

"The son of a close friend. The boy's name is Mark Kenjiro Washio," he said as Nova noticed something of a resemblance between the blue-eyed boy and Derek, and a resemblance between him and the younger Alex Wildstar, who was still snuggling in her lap.

"Who's his father?" Nova asked. "He must be Japanese or part Japanese since he sort of looks like my husband…"

Anderson swallowed hard, thinking of the Beta-Five Project forming in his head. He somehow knew the day would come when the famous Mrs. Wildstar would meet up with Mark. He felt uncomfortable under the intense gaze of Commodore Wildstar and Nova as they watched the boy. _How much do they suspect?_ Anderson thought_. I'm sure nothing was leaked to them about this…or about the real reason why Mrs. Wildstar was hospitalized for a short time back in 2203. They must never be told, although I am sure that….oh…._

"Why is he with _you_ today, Doctor?" Nova asked.

"His father recently vanished on a secret mission, sadly," said Anderson. "His mother, Tina Washio, is ill…probably radiation sickness. We don't know…"

"I see," Nova said softly.

Mark had walked away a little, and his eyes met those of "Princess" Traci Yussupov. Soon, the two children were chattering away as they tried to find a way to slip away from Anderson and the other adults….

* * *

Some time passed.

Diane threw her bouquet, and the one who caught it was Aurora Forrester (who got a lot of teasing for it).

Stephen then lifted Diane's skirt, and pulled off her garter and threw it at the groomsmen. Homer caught it, so a laughing Wendy sat in a chair and bared her legs as Homer put the garter on her.

Then, there was some more dancing, and then Stephen and Diane changed into their Star Force uniforms to fly off to an R & R retreat on Palau (in the Pacific) to take their honeymoon.

They left in their Jet Recon Boat just a little before 1600 hours, with lots of cheers and good wishes.

But, the party at the Iscandarian Embassy was not over yet….

* * *

**IV. BEACHES AND OTHER THINGS…**

**Earth**

**Vicinity of the Tokyo Megalopolis**

**The Iscandarian Embassy**

**Saturday August 6, 2208**

**1645 Hours**

* * *

It was late afternoon, and the formal reception was breaking up somewhat on the island where the Iscandarian Embassy was located. They would have about four more hours' worth of daylight, but those who remained after Stephen and Diane Sandor had left on their honeymoon would still have fun.

Inside one of the Embassy buildings, Homer laughed a little at Wendy as she held Aaron. He held Joshua. "Why the heck is he crying again?"

Wendy laughed. "Easy. He needs milk. Sasha?"

"Star's yelling for it," Sasha said as she stood there with her dress down. Her breasts were already out, and she was slipping out of the rest of her clothes (to some mild embarrassment on Deke's part).

"Nova, I can't believe you want to do this," Derek said over the whimpers and wails of little Alex.

"Queen Starsha said it was okay," Nova said as she came out walking along Ariel, who was giggling at Mommy, while she juggled Alex, who was at her breast. Ariel was down to her underwear, along with Derek (who was in nothing but a fundoshi). Nova, on the other hand, came out in the nude, with an equally bare little Alex suckling at her breast and then playing with it as he giggled.

Derek smiled at Nova and whispered in her ear, as they walked out onto the beach "Having our kids and nursing them has sure changed your attitiude about being undressed…."

"Yes,that and the fact that the Sun is just going…haywire," Nova said as she wiped her brow, innocently unashamed of her nakedness out on the island beach. "In case any of you are wondering, Alex the Elder is combing out Starsha's hair; and the Queen also intends to join us on the beach naked." Nova smiled as she wiggled her wet toes in the sand, "Oh, it feels so nice to be barefoot in this wet sand after wearing heels all day…and the breeze feels _so_ good against my bare back…"

"That sounds like fun!" laughed Wendy. She whispered in Homer's ear. "Honey…strip me…"

Homer rolled up his eyes, but he pulled Wendy onto his lap as he freed her breasts from her dress, took her sandals off, and, within about two minutes, Wendy joined both Nova and Sasha in the nude on the beach. Ten minutes later, Nova was lying back in the surf cooling herself for a moment as her mother (who had also stripped) snapped a picture of her lying in the ocean while Derek combed Alex's hair with one hand and stripped Ariel of her underpants with the other. Nova was pleased to see that her husband had taken his fundoshi off as soon as he got on the beach, and he waded naked into the ocean himself with the kids next to her a moment later. Alex stamped his feet and splashed his laughing parents, who splashed the bare toddler right back. Ariel came to her mother, kissed her, and said, "Milkie?"

"Sure, dear! Yes, go ahead and have milkie," Nova said as she pulled Ariel onto her lap, tickled her, and then tenderly gave Ariel her breast in the ocean.

Starsha splashed up in the sea near Nova and smiled. Nova smiled back at her. Like her, Starsha also went naked in the water. Nova looked around, smiling as she saw that she, Sasha, Wendy, her mother….all of the bridesmaids with young children were naked in the water with their kids in the heat. "That's the way I used to love to nurse Sasha in the water on Iscandar….the ocean feels nice, doesn't it?"

"It does," Nova said.

"The water is a little warmer on Iscandar, though," Starsha said sadly as her Consort (also stripped) came up and splashed her. Starsha laughed and splashed back. Then, Starsha looked at them all, and said, "I'm going to be here on Earth for a couple of days with Alex, negotiating with the Earth Government here at the Embassy. Starsha then shaded her hand and looked up at the Sun for a moment, and she quietly said, "There are forces fighting in your star that are not entirely natural. The effects of that missile Alex told me about will eventually fade….but another power is trying to take advantage of this small crisis to make it worse…."

Starsha then stood up and jumped back a little onto the wet sand. As the surf ran over her toes, she said, as she put out her arms, "Just as I feared…there is a malign influence in that sunlight. I feel it against my naked skin. I feel it down to my very bones. HE is interfering with your star…"

"The Dark Lord?" whispered Alex as he held Starsha, who threw her wet around her and began to shiver as she put her arms around her body.

Starsha nodded. Then, she sat down on the wet sand near Nova and Derek, flipped back her hair, and tried to let the Sun burn the sudden sense of death and cold she felt out of her as she said, "He cannot permanently ruin your star, though. Or destroy it. Not without his…accursed Fortress…." Starsha then went silent and summoned Sasha over. "Sasha, dear?" she said to her daughter.

"Yes, Mother?" said Sasha.

"Your sister Astra still secludes herself on Iscandar and will not speak to me. So, it is my understanding you have been teaching some on Earth the _Tandari_ Dance?"

"Yes, Auntie Nova," Sasha said. As Deke came up beside her, he asked, "Your Highness, what is the _Tandari _Dance?"

Starsha smiled at Deke and said, "The _Tandari_ Dance is an old fertility dance, maintained in our culture as a ceremonial form of modern dance as an art form. Starsha stood, let the wind blow back her hair and went up on her toes and demonstrated some of the simpler moves as everyone sat awed by Starsha's beauty and grace as she executed the fluid movements, which looked like a cross between ballet and modern dance with some gymnasts' floor exercise moves thrown in "Wow," said Deke. "Ma'am, I bet it looks even better in….well, whatever costume you wear with it…"

Starsha laughed. "This _is _the basic costume for Tandari! Ancient custom dictates that for body freedom, and to appease the spiritual forces behind this dance, the dancer must perform this dance in the nude. We do allow some minimal bodily decoration, such as a light, flowing silken scarf around the neck, usually blue, and maybe a decorative set of anklets and bracelets and even a bell or two on the toes on a toe ring. But clothing or actual covering or shoes are not alllowed for this ritual. To perform this dance clothed is actually considered something of an insult to the spirits…."

Deke then said, "You always have to be…well….bare-assed for this dance, ma'an, then?"

"You are essentially correct," Starsha said. "I've performed this dance myself both entirely nude and with a few decorations on…this is not that uncommon even on Earth. In your history, weren't your Greek athletes nude?"

"Yes, they were. Who have you performed this for, your Highness?" Deke asked as Sasha whispered to Nova. Soon, both young women were up, practicing Starsha's fluid moves as Sasha led. Queen Starsha then laughed as she saw little Ariel up on her toes trying to imitate her mother. "That's adorable, Nova! She's so cute!"

"Pretty," she said as she hugged her mother and then ran up to Queen Starsha and hugged her. "Why your hair so long? And are you _always _nakee?"

Starsha laughed and kissed her. "No, Ariel. Remember the pretty dress I had on before? It was sort of like the one you had on…although I do like to be naked at "

"More fun nakee!" yelled Ariel as Nova just broke up with laughter as she put out her arms for Ariel to run over and hug her

Starsha said, "I've danced like this for some of the Council on Iscandar years ago, as well as for some now, for you and Astra, Sasha, I demonstrated this for you once, Nova, you recall…"

"I thought it was very pretty," Nova said.

"You're coming along, darling one," Starsha said affectionately to Nova. "Of course, I performed this way for Alex…and, when we were in love….I danced like this for Desslok."

Deke's face dropped and he said, "You…ma'am…danced like this for him?"

"And what's wrong with that?" Nova said as she broke out of a move and then sat down beside Deke pointing her finger at him. "It's artistic, Deke! And they were lovers, remember? I considered disrobing and doing this dance for Derek on the beach on Iscandar, but I wasn't brave enough to show him any of the moves until we were married."

"You're brave enough now," Derek said as he kissed her.

"Darn right," Nova said.

Not far away, Starsha was admiring little Star, who lay kicking in Sasha's arms. She looked _so_ cute. Derek and Deke stood in the background, setting up beach hardware such as coolers and umbrellas, followed by Alex a moment later.

Deke and Alex also admired Starsha and Sasha as they played with the baby, all of them relaxing bare in the sun.

Star squealed in her mother's arms and put her arms up to be hugged by her grandmother Starsha as Sasha played with her naked baby daughter. Starsha took her a moment later, and hugged both her and Sasha.

"She's beautiful," Starsha said. "And she's so alert. This is going to be a very special little girl, and she'll have quite a life to lead someday…"

"Thank you, Mother," Sasha said.

Indeed, a moment later, as little Alex began to run down the beach at full speed, filled with toddler energy, Starsha got a drink of juice from the cooler and smiled as she drank. "What sort of fruit is this?" she said after drinking.

"Orange juice," Sasha said. "Auntie Nova fresh-squeezed it a day or so ago and she left some here in the cooler with us."

Nova, in the meantime, was playing with Ariel in the water.

Ariel was splashing Nova and making her laugh as she stomped in the water with her feet. Nova stomped back. Soon, the two of them were dumping water on each other.

Nova brought a squiggly Ariel out of the water a few minutes later, just in time to lie down and catch some sun. Ariel had a sippy cup of a drink in her hand and looked adorable.

Nova looked at Derek and said, "Did you get sunscreen everywhere?"

"Well…I need some…uh…right here," he said as he pointed at his privates.

"Ooooo, we don't want _those_ to get sunburned, do we?" Nova whispered in his ear. A moment later, Nova was working with the sunscreen after she got Derek to lie back with his legs open. The coverage he got with sunscreen was both thorough and rather affectionately applied by Derek's young wife as his body responded for just a moment. Nova then kissed his chest and whispered, "We'll save the rest for later, okay?"

"Okay," Derek replied.

A moment later, she heard Derek yelling, "Alexander, get back here with that!" Alex was running down the beach at full tilt with his mother's tube of sunscreen in his hand, laughing his head off as he ran towards his big brother. Jonathan was encouraging little Alexander to bring him the tube of sunscreen while Nova looked on with concern. Soon, Jon caught the toddler, held him up, and tickled him like crazy as he got the tube of sunscreen away from him and tossed it back at his father.

"Thanks, Jonathan," Derek said.

"Bad Alexander!" scolded Nova as she pulled little Alex over and gave him a light swat on his conveniently bare bottom. He began to whimper as his mother held him, told him she loved him, and then said, "Please calm down, honey?" Nova then started playing with some sand, which fascinated Alex and Ariel since she was using a pretty seashell to dig into the sand.

Katrina was actually on the beach a few minutes later; she and Foxy were the only ones there wearing swimwear. Katrina had on a dark blue tank suit and matching blue sandals with a white hat, while Foxy had on only a white Speedo bikini brief.

"I told you that you'd like this beach," said Foxy.

"I do not enjoy it, but I am here for you. Do not like the sun, annoying kids…" she said as a naked little Mark Anderson ran into her, escorted by Doctor Anderson, who had on a red set of swim trunks and his glasses. "Go avay, you BRAT!" yelled Katrina as she looked down at the blue-eyed boy.

"Mark, _behave_," said Anderson. "You should be grateful I let you come here today, and that I let you take all of your clothes off!"

Then, Ariel ran up and clouted Mark in the head with a hunk of sand. Mark began to cry, Nova caught up with Ariel and gave her a swat on the bottom, which made Ariel cry, and then Nova picked up Ariel and said, "I'm sorry, Doctor. She's getting a bit hyperactive."

"So is young Mark here," said Anderson.

Nova bent down while holding Ariel and she tousled Mark's hair. "You're a cutie," she said.

He kissed Nova and said, "You're pretty…"

"Thank you…"

"Wish you were my mommy. My mommy's sick all the time," Mark said sadly.

"Ohhhh…poor dear," Nova said as she hugged Mark skin-to-skin. She then gave him a kiss on the forehead and said, "Now go run off with the good Doctor."

"Okay…Mommy," said Mark.

"I'm not your Mommy," Nova said softly. "Unless you want to play pretend…"

"Okay. Pretend you're my Mommy," giggled Mark.

"First, Ariel," giggled back Nova. "Your play big brother here has sand on his tushie. Help me clean it off of him…"

Ariel giggled and said, "Big brother!" in a loud voice.

"I'm not your big brother," giggled Mark.

"We're pretending," Nova said.

"Okay, little sissie," said Mark. He tickled her, and she giggled back. Then, he spotted Derek, ran to him as Anderson grinned a rueful grin, and yelled, "DADDDY!" at the top of his lungs.

"Daddy?" Derek said.

"We're playing pretend," Nova said. "His mother is sick, so he's pretending I'm his healthy young mom who can run after him and keep up with him. You be his daddy, Derek…" Nova said as Ariel grabbed a breast and began to nurse a little.

"This is silly," he laughed.

"You're my daddy," said Mark. "My real daddy vanished on us. No-good-nik!"

"Where did your Daddy go?"

"Secret mission. Mommy has no idea when he's comin' home. That's why Real Mommy is sad. Pretend Mommy there doesn't lay in bed all the time like Real Mommy does," whimpered Mark. "Pretend Mommy also has a pretty tan all over. Real Mommy very pale and sick-looking last time she took a bath with me." Mark poked Derek's stomach. "Pretend Daddy must be very strong…"

"I am," Derek said. "Your real daddy?"

"Yukky! He LEFT us!" sobbed Mark. Derek held him, giving him a kiss as he tried to console a boy who seemed to be almost inconsolable.

Anderson shook his head and thought, _From out of the mouths of babes…Wildstar, if only I could tell you the truth..but it is so strange you may not believe it…._

* * *

Diane and Stephen Sandor arrived together on Palau around 1700 Hours.

They landed their Jet Recon Boat, unpacked, and Steve got into swimwear while Diane changed.

Diane finally came out of the bedroom, smiling at Steve as she said, "Like my outfit?"

"What outfit?" laughed Sandor. He loooked at Diane from her bare toes (she was now barefoot), up her bare legs, to her crotch, covered only by a light silk fundoshi, and then up her stomach, to her upper body, breasts, and shoulders, which were nude in the warm cottage.

Then, he looked at Diane, and said, seriously "How does…your skin feel?" he asked shyly.

"Itchy all over. Still filthy. Dirty," Diane said as she brushed her toes against the rug.

"Then, you need me to give you a bath…and make love to you," said Steve. "Then, I need to dress you…probably in something light and loose…"

"The bath part, I like," Diane said. "Skip the clothes."

"Skip…the clothes?"

Diane smiled sadly, "I don't quite feel clean yet…I feel like bugs are crawling all over me, so, Steve, guess what?"

"What?"

"Until I feel clean again, I am going to simply go naked after you strip me of this fundoshi."

"Diane, I know you packed swimwear…clothes…"

"It's our honeymoon, Stephen," Diane purred. "I don't particularly need to be dressed, do I?"

Diane hugged Steve and she dropped her fundoshi.

They were kissing a moment later.

Diane pulled Steve's swim trunks down, and she examined what was revealed. "Nice…" she whispered as she played with his manhood and everything that the transplant operation had repaired. "Mmmmm…nice…"

Steve kissed Diane again, and then he began to play with her breasts and nipples. Soon, his hands were at her naked crotch, and she was gasping and sighing with pleasure. "You're good…Steve…you're…so…good.." she whispered….

"You don't mind this?"

"Not from you, Stephen, and don't make me think of him again….Steve…."

"Him? You mean…?"

"That poor excuse for a man who raped me…if he is a man…just…lay me down there on the rug…and….."

"And what?" teased Sandor.

Diane just moaned.

"What, darling?" whispered Steve. "God…you're good….that feels so…good…"

"You know what the hell I want, silly," said Diane as she pulled Stephen closer….and…a moment later, he took her right on the rug in their cottage….

….and they got busy consumating their marriage less than an hour after arriving on Palau….

….letting their love wipe out their past…and letting it promise a new future…

….their lovemaking was quick, torrid, hot….but very passionate as they climaxed and screamed out each other's names maybe twenty minutes after starting….and then, they lay there cuddling and went on to…other things.

They had food there, but it would be about the next two or three hours before they even stopped to eat.

* * *

Of course, the bridal couple were not the _only_ ones who were getting frisky that night.

On the Iscandarian Embassy grounds, there was a guesthouse. The Wildstars were given two rooms, one for the kids (who finally went to sleep with Jonathan sleeping in the room with them) and an adjoining room, connected to the other one with a door, for Admiral and Commander Wildstar.

There, at about 2100 Hours, or 9 PM, Nova and Derek had gone to bed after a shower, still unclothed, even though the staff had laid out summer clothes for them to put on the next morning. However, they did not go to sleep, since they took advantage of the privacy and their nakedness to do the same thing that Diane and Steve were doing on Palau (especially when Nova teased Derek with "you owe me, sir").

Namely, they made some hot, playful, joyful, and happy love to each other.

When they were done, and they lay sweaty but fulfilled under the open window, Derek said, "A lot happened today."

"It sure did," Nova replied.

"Do you think they're happy…Diane and Steve?"

"I think so. They looked happy when they left, Derek," Nova said. "It's so nice that Sandor's finally with someone. And the same goes for Diane. She's had a rough life…"

"I know," Derek said. "At least I know…now…"

"She never told you everything when you were together?" Nova asked.

"No. Not all of it," Derek said. He held Nova and said, "I could stay like this forever with you…"

"Me too, Derek…" They kissed and held each other for a long while before going to sleep.

'

* * *

**V. LUNCH**

**Earth**

**Derek and Nova Wildstar's Residence**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Tuesday, August 9, 2208**

**0845 Hours**

* * *

Morning came.

At home, Derek Wildstar woke up late, not finding Nova there, but finding Alex and Ariel asleep in their new rooms. All Derek had on was a fundoshi. It was one of those hot days where Derek felt the humidity even with the air conditioning on. He kissed Alex on the forehead and felt his son's chest. It was sweaty, and as he stripped the sheet from him, he felt the new little jockey shorts Alex had on. Wet.

"Sorry, sport, but these are coming of you," Derek said as he tenderly stripped off his son's underpants and left him lying there naked. Derek got a wet cloth and began to wash Alex off lightly after also stripping the top sheet off little Ariel, who, as he noticed, had gone to bed naked.

Derek heard the door opening and he heard a sigh. "Who's that?"

"Just me," Nova said as she came in, barefoot, flipping a fan, and dressed in nothing but a pair of shorty overalls worn over her naked body. "It's over a hundred out there already," she said as she set a glass of water on the ground after opening a window…her hair blew in the hot breeze as she sat on the floor and fanned herself.

"Then, why aren't you stripped down and in the pool with Jonathan?" Derek said. "He's up already and swimming out there in his birthday suit…"

"I had to go out, Derek…to pick up a few things. I can't exactly go to the Mini Mart for iced tea naked," she said with a sarcastic laugh. "It's a miracle I got in there without any shoes on, come to think of it…"

Derek smiled at his wife. "You usually wear a shirt or blouse with that?"

Nova nodded. "Too hot." Nova then added, "If we go out with the kids later and they want these," she said as she pointed at her breasts, "It's a minimum of fuss and muss to get them out, at least."

Jonathan ran into the house, drying himself from his splash in the pool…like his little brother and sister, he was still naked.

"What are we doing today?" he said.

"First you need to put some clothes on," Derek said.

"Get your Speedo, Jonathan. The one with the mesh on the sides. You look nice in that," Nova suggested. "And wear your blue flip-flops…"

"Where are we going?" Jonathan said.

"After breakfast, maybe the Lido boardwalk?" Nova said. "We can have lunch at Bravada's, Derek."

"That bistro near the ocean?"

Nova nodded. "And we're getting a table outside today if we can manage it. I want to eat lunch looking at the ocean. Then, I want to go down to the beach, strip down, and play with Alex and Ariel in the water. They love it so much!"

"Good idea," Derek said as he kissed Nova.

* * *

Later, at the bistro, Ariel, topless in her little shorts and lei, got out of her chair, ran over to her mother, and began to climb in her lap.

"Ohhhhh…what do you want?" Nova said tenderly as she smiled at Derek.

"Dwinkies?" said Ariel.

"I can get you more juice," Nova said as Derek grinned.

"NO! Milkie!" screeched Ariel.

Derek smiled and went 'tsk-tsk' as Nova said, "Derek, she's still pretty much a baby! Okay, Ariel, up on mommy's lap," Nova said as she made her comfortable on her thigh. "Now, let me get my overalls open, and…." Nova said as she undid a strap of her coveralls and let her breast come free from under the bib in the sun. Ariel took it, nursed a little, then she pulled back and said, "Pants ITCHY!"

"Are you saying you don't want your pants on…and you want to be like a baby?" Nova said. "Honey, big girls keep their pants on in public."

"Most of the time," said Derek with a smirk.

"Bad Daddy!" Nova said as she threw a small used plastic coffee creamer container at Derek.

"We're at the beach! I see nakee people!" yelled Ariel, who began to cry.

"Oh…okay, honey….pants come off," said Nova as she undid Ariel's pink denim shorts and let her crawl around in her lap in just her lei and sandals. Ariel took her mother's breast and sucked away contentedly for a bit until she looked at her mother and said, "Now Mommy get nakee!"

"Honey, this is not the beach," Nova said as Alex looked up from his lunch and threw a napkin at her. Nova ignored him and said, "Ariel, people wear clothes in public to cover themselves. You can still sort of undress because you are sort of a baby and it is very warm out, and Mommy can half undress to feed you. But not….."

"WANNA FEEL MOMMY'S LEGGIE!" screamed Ariel, who began to sob. People looked over at them as Nova tried to calm Ariel, with little success.

Derek saved the day (sort of) when he got up, and, looking at Nova he said, "Leg under the table, Nova, let me get at your hip….we did this the other day…."

"At _home_," Nova said with a blush.

"You'll be half-dressed," Derek said as he popped open a pair of copper snaps at the side of Nova's coveralls. He kissed Nova and very gently bared her hip all the way to the sun as he pushed aside her bib and the minimal leg of her shorts, just leaving Nova decent at her crotch as he helped Ariel crawl up skin-to-skin against her mother's semi-naked lower stomach and thigh, carefully baring Nova's buttock on that side as well, and leaving only that entire side of hers nude in the sun and bare against Ariel.

"Now, if Alex wants something, he can either wait or hold off until we go on the beach," Derek said.

"People are _looking_ at me," Nova said with a blush.

"Probably because they think you're cute…." Derek said.

"No, mabye because they think I'm a nudist," Nova said, rolling up her eyes and covering Derek's when two laughing college-age teenagers came up to the maitre d' of the outdoor bistro. They were straight off the beach, and their swimwear consisted of just a short sarong and sandals for one girl, who was entirely topless, and just a blue set of flip-flops and a blue hat for the other girl, who was otherwise nude for the beach. Nova sighed as the maitre d led them to a table. She overheard him saying, "We'll let you in, but don't jump up on the table and dance like that," he said as he led them to a table. Then, he came over to Nova and Derek.

"Oh, no, we're going to get yelled at," Nova said as she blushed.

The maitre d' smiled and said, "Hello again, madam. Your mon cherie is hungry?"

Nova smiled and nodded.

"You two look lovely, madam. Would you like an extra cushion for your derriere?"

_Thank heavens_, Nova thought. "Yes, I would…if you don't mind?"

Then, Alex got up, came to his mother, and began to whimper. "Yes?" Nova said.

"Want milkie too!" he said. "Other side…"

"Sweetheart, you'll have to wait until Ariel's done…I…"

Alex then began to scream as the maitre d' came back with a nice big cushion. He looked at Alex as Derek got up to try and hold him and he said, "I've seen this before…he wants the other one?"

Nova really blushed as she got up and let Derek put the cushion under her. Then, she said, "Yes…he wants the other one, and..given what I have on…I'd be naked if I let the other one out…"

"We are next to a clothes-optional beach…it's not that unusual…witness the teenyboppers two tables away," said the maitre d' as Alex whimpered.

Derek whispered in Nova's ear, "Honey, let me just undress you and get him up in your lap. You do it all the time on the beach…which we are right by, by the way…"

"Okay," Nova said. "Mind if we go all down and splash in the ocean when we get done with lunch?"

"Not at all," Derek said.

Then, she let Derek begin to undo the other side of her coveralls as Alex pulled down his shorts. Then, Derek kissed Nova as she undid the last button of her coveralls, letting the garment fall away while shutting her eyes and smiling a little as a nice breeze blew over her naked body before Alex got into her lap skin-to-skin with her and took her other breast and began to feed. Then, Derek sat beside her, and romantically fed Nova her Shrimp Scampi when it arrived since she had both of her hands full.

Derek whispered in Nova's ear, "Does naked mommy like being fed Shrimp Scampi by daddy?"

"Yes, naked mommy loves Shrimp Scampi," Nova whispered back. "Naked mommy wants something to eat for dessert at home later when the kids are having naptime…"

"And that is?" Derek whispered.

Nova whispered back, "Sausage. The kind that is attached to Daddy…"

Derek kissed her and said, "Sounds…wonderful…."

* * *

Later on, after lunch and after a splashing session with the toddlers in the ocean, Nova clothed herself in a pair of light thong sandals from the trunk of her car and wrapped one of her beach towels (a small one) around her middle to serve as a sarong as she walked up and down the boardwalk with Derek and all of the kids. Alex and Ariel had finally gotten dressed again, and Jonathan had kept his Speedo bikini bottom on throughout the afternoon. Nova remained topless, but she looked cute that way with her floral towel on and a flower stuck in her hair.

They did their business, shopping a little at the boardwalk, and then they went home to a normal week.

Little did they know how strange and how evil things would become in just the next few days.

* * *

**VI. THE NEXT ATTACK: MURDER MOST FOUL**

**Planet Earth**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Tuesday August 16, 2208**

**1320 Hours Earthtime**

* * *

"I'm sorry," said the young secretary, who was known as Danielle Kaperski. "Defense Minister Edward Ainsley's schedule is taken up for today, sir. He is not available now, and is at a meeting at Earth Defense Headquarters. I can pencil you in for a week from today."

"That's not going to work," snapped the middle-aged man in the blue suit as he stood before Kaperski's desk in Ainsley's outer office in the main Parliamentary Office Building in the Megalopolis. "I demand to see him now, girl." He held up a business card for an aerospace firm. "I have to discuss this contract with him today. My Board of Directors needs a result!"

"Sir, the Minister is a very busy man!" said Danielle. "You're going to have to leave, sir. I'd like you to come back on the twenty-third, a week from today. Now, If I can show you out?" she said, getting up to politely grab the man's arm.

A moment later, poor Danielle Kaperski gasped as, right outside Defense Minster Ainsley's office, the monstrous man grabbed her and forcibly pulled her skirt open, revealing her sole undergarment in the heat, namely, her thin panties. She tried to stamp his toe with the steletto heel of one of her office dress sandals, but she yelled when her heel bounced off the madman's shoe…he had steel toes beneath his dress shoes, much unlike the open toes on Danielle's hot-weather shoes. Then, the twenty-two year old secretary cried when he stomped on her exposed toes, hurting them and scratching a pedicure she had been able to keep out in the open all summer by either wearing sandals or going barefoot.

She screamed again as she looked back at the man and realized that he looked a ghastly _green_ shade all over for a moment as his middle-aged face melted into a weird, demonic-looking face with long blond hair as he whispered, "Don't resist me…and it won't hurt…_much_!"

Then, Danielle felt her panties being torn from her body; she screamed and kicked as her womanhood was shamefully bared right in her office as he tore her skirt from her body.

"WHO ARE YOU? HELP ME!" screamed Danielle.

"My name is Zoltar. Ibn Zoltar of Planet Spectra. I'm here to kill someone today..namely your boss, whom I know is in despite what you squeaked before behind your perky little desk! But, I'm going to have some fun with you, _first_, bitch! So, prepare to be screwed!"

As Miss Kaperski screamed and no help came, Zoltar picked the half-naked woman while he roughly invaded her privates with one hand while he violently threw her onto her own desk and ripped her blouse open, baring her suntanned breasts.

Danielle was a pretty woman who loved to sunbathe nude in Ueno Park and meet other women there, some famous, others not so famous. She prided herself on having gotten Nova Wildstar's autograph one day while sunning bare in the park. She been surprised but not embarrassed at meeting the famous woman in only her skin, because Nova herself also went naked herself that lunch hour, tenderly nursing her son while her daughter slept. Later that day, when Nova had come into the office to see the Defense Minister, the other girls were envious that Danielle was on a first-name basis with the famous Star Force officer. Danelle also noticed that Nova had made her EDF uniform of her peacoat, standard duty blues blouse and skirt, and plain sandals look downright _cute_.

What Danielle did not know was that she would be meeting with Commander Wildstar again, and very soon, after a fashion.

Danielle was jarred back to the present by Zoltar climbing on top of her, breathing his fetid breath into her ear while he took her body like a madman.

Danielle screamed in pain. She was not a virgin; she had a boyfriend named Rengo who had very tenderly taken her virginity about two weeks ago. She had slept with him two times since, and were talking about getting engaged….

…but Zoltar was not Rengo. He was a beast, a monster, a devil, pure and simple. When Zoltar took her and raped her, it hurt.

It hurt so much! And he was so brutal! He methodically tore every last scrap of clothing, every piece of jewelry, and even her shoes off her body as he raped her, and he scratched and clawed and rent her naked form as he rutted with her.

"Please stop it!" sobbed Danielle. "PLEASE stop it! I'll let you in to see the Defense Minister, sir! I'll even walk you to his office naked if you want!" she begged. "Just let me go and let me live! My boyfriend and I are talking about getting married and making a baby!"

"I'll let you go, but not to live!" he ranted, laughing like a madman as he exploded in her. Danielle tried to hide the involuntary orgasm she was ashamed of by crying and screaming as she climaxed, but Zoltar only laughed at her.

He was still laughing when he plunged the dagger into the throat and slashed, even as he continued to rape her like a machine, growing painfully hard again in her thanks thanks to his unnatural shape-changing abilities. As a man, he could keep a woman in torment this way for hours.

Brutally deprived of the ability to speak as her larynx was brutally sliced open, Danielle could only make a pathetic mewing sound like a baby or a kitten as she tried to scream as blood spurted from her neck and she gagged on it, even as he continued to rape her without mercy as he pulled the dagger out of her.

Her bare feet kicked a few times, slowing as her lifeblood sprayed from her carotid artery as her labored heart continued to work, then slowed, and then ground to a halt as the light left her eyes and Danielle's tortured soul left this world. Zoltar laughed softly as he felt her die beneath him, and he finished himself in his sick lust right in her pathetic corpse as he plunged the dagger into her dead throat again.

Zoltar grinned, wiping his hands as he got up off of her, put himself back, zipped his fly, and said to her, as he left her spawled naked, dead, and bloody on the desk with her eyes staring sightlessly towards the ceiling as she lay there with his dagger still in her neck, "Danielle, dear, I do hope the flies like your body. You're delicious. What a shame that in this heat, you'll be just gook and bones down there in the grave in a few weeks. Maybe I'll come and dig up your grave and take your pretty little skull as a souvenier in a few weeks." He pulled the dagger back out of her neck, licked off her blood, and then went in to see Defense Minister Ainsley, unmasked.

It wouldn't matter that he would see Zoltar unmasked. Ainsley was going to join Danielle in death in a few minutes. And both of them would have appointments with Doctor Sane and Nova Wildstar that night.

On the autopsy table…

* * *

In the meantime, in a little scene that may not appear all that relevant, but which is, in fact, vital to this narrative, Nova was home with Derek, lying in a small wading pool in her yard, trying to get some relief in the heat while the main pool was being repaired. Jonathan was not home, being at a Junior Space Cadet Corps event for most of the day. Derek could see poor Nova sweating as she lay in the wading pool in her red bikini. All he had on at this time of day was a polo shirt and an old pair of gym shorts "Derek…..I'm so hot! I'm sorry, but…"

"Then stand up….now," he said gently.

"Derek?" she asked as he came up behind her….hugged her…

…and firmly, but gently stripped Nova of her bikini top, caressing her breasts as he did so.

Then, a moment later, right as Nova looked like she was going to protest, Derek gently and sweetly pulled down her bottoms, pulling her into his lap, and kissing her as he freed her of them and then sat caressing her womanhood as she lay naked in his lap in the grass.

It was at this time, while Nova was stripped nude, that Danielle Kaperski was dealing with her unwanted guest in her outer office….

Derek noticed it was about 1320 Hours on his watch. Early afternoon. As he stroked Nova's breasts and played with her nipples, he said, "Today, it's going to be so hot….that I think I just want you to go naked around the house…or on the beach. Do you have any requests before I throw your bikini in the wash and leave you in just your cute skin for the afternoon….until we have to go out to shop later?"

"One request, Derek.."

:"Yes?"

"Make me very happy," she whispered in his ear.

He kissed her and began to touch her womanhood, caressing it, touching it, teasing every bit of her out there in the sun as she lay there in the grass wearing nothing but a smile.

Finally, Nova died in his arms in the sun, crying out his name as she shivered.

Then, Derek stroked her hair and lay her back in her wading pool naked.

She smiled at her husband, blew a kiss at him, and then lay back in the water with a contented sigh as she wiggled her toes in the grass. Her feet hurt a bit from the exertions and shifts of the past few weeks, so being barefoot for the afternoon would help, she thought.

A while later, after feeding Alex and Ariel their lunch around 1342 (baby food on their highchair plates, milk fresh from Mommy's nude breasts) Nova began giving them a happy, joyful bath when her mother came over for a bit with David and Aurora.

Nova had Derek prepare the bath while she took Alex and Ariel out into the back yard and played with them under a sprinkler after she stripped them of their clothes and let them run around squealing in the grass. Derek was there a few minutes later to capture the event on video; the timestamp on his camera read 1349 Hours as Nova played with her children under the spray of the sprinkler, joined by David and Aurora as Teri undressed them and let them chase her around. Nova was soon screaming with laughter as her younger brother and sister and her two toddlers all joined forces to get the naked young woman as wet as possible.

Then, finally, at 1353 Hours, Derek continued to film Nova and Teri with the kids in their bathroom as she bathed them. Part of the video featured Teri stripping out of her kimono and getting into the tub with her two daughters and her son and her small grandchildren to play with them and splash in the water…and it ended with Alex baptizing her with baby wee as he had done so many times in both of his parents' arms and laps.

They all laughed as Nova helped Teri clean up, and then, at 1359 Hours, Derek captured a tender shot of Nova lying back in the water giving Alex her breast as the toddler clung to his mother while Teri caressed his back in the tub. The scene looked simply adorable, and very, very precious….

It would help out later on, because, at the same time, in Defense Minister Ainsley's office, a strange event was happening.

* * *

At 1341 Hours, Zoltar grinned as he looked through a photo album on Danielle's desk. He found a picture someone had taken of Danielle and Nova together.

_The little bitch, back in my life again_, thought Zoltar. _Well, well, well, I think I can pull off being "her" for a bit…._

Zoltar then used his abilities, becoming several inches shorter as his gender changed, and his hair color changed to honey-blonde. His suit shrunk, and turned from blue to white. The slacks turned into a skirt that bared shapely female legs, and his dress shoes became sandals.

Zoltar's tie turned into a scarlet scarf, and the appropriate EDF decorations appeared on the white jacket as her face melted, and turned into the face of Nova Wildstar.

Zoltar grinned into a mirror. "Now, I look just like you, you _bitch_," he said, as he made sure he twirled and pirouetted in front of a video camera in Nova's shape while holding the bloody knife.

Then, with no preamble, Zoltar kicked open the door to Defense Minster Edward Ainsley's office, grinning as she recognized a video camera recording the scene. The camera's timestamp would read: _**1348 Hours**_. At this time, the real Nova was in her yard, innocently naked, being splashed under the sprinkler by her toddlers.

"What is going on here?" demanded Ainsley. "Wildstar, why the hell do you think you can burst into my office like that? I'm busy, woman!"

"It's simple," 'Nova' said in a cold voice. "I take severe issue with your procurement policies and your decision to de-emphasize the budget of the Star Force. So, I've decided to take care of the problem by…taking…care…of…YOU," she said as she jumped onto Ainsley's desk and showed him the bloody dagger that she had just used a while ago to murder Danielle Kaperski.

"What is wrong with you?" demanded Ainsley as he buzzed Kaperski. "Danielle! Get this crazy woman out of my office!" he yelled into the intercom. "Get Security!"

"Danielle's already dead, Ainsley. I've seen to it myself," 'Nova' said. "Soon, you are going to join her!" 'Nova' screamed as she kicked everything off Ainsley's desk.

Then, she jumped at the Defense Minister in his chair, landed on him, and jabbed the dagger into his throat and cut. This would look almost damningly convincing, since it turned out that the real Nova was very good at killing people in combat by quickly cutting their throats. A moment later. Ainsley was only able to make mewing noises himself as 'Nova' dragged him up onto the desk with a strength that was almost demonic while his spurting blood decorated her white uniform and made it look like a butcher's smock.

Oddly enough, at home, at the same moment, the real Nova was also being sprayed upon….in a far more innocent manner in a clean spray of baby wee from Alex as the naked breastfeeding mother sat on the kitchen floor tickling her equally naked little son in her lap as he took a pause from nursing and he suddenly went wee-wee all over his mother's breasts in a little accident that made both his parents laugh.

Then, back downtown, 'Nova' ripped his pants down and she made a vicious slash and chopped off his genitals as he lay dying. Mafia-style, she waved his emasculated member around, and then stuffed the amputated organs into Ainsley's mouth as he took his last few agonized breaths. Then, 'Nova' lay there on top of Ainsley, laughing like crazy as she punched his chest and kicked in a weird parody of the act of love. 'Nova' then smeared some of the blood on her face and gave the camera the finger.

Then, 'Nova' got up and ran out just as she heard voices coming. 'Nova' transformed herself into a form resembling the dead Danielle Kaperski, albeit running around in an EDF Headquarters uniform. Hearing a shot going off, and panicking, Zoltar ran, slipped out of one of 'Nova's' sandals, and stepped barefoot into a pool of blood. She took a hit in the arm from a security guard's slug thrower weapon (a plain old .38 revolver), yelling as a spray of her blood hit a fire extinguisher. She then fired point-blank with a Spectran weapon at that security guard, killing the guard before she ran off into a corridor, used her bracelet, and transported herself back into orbit.

Her form changed again as she boarded the ship; she now looked like her female guise, Mala, the Devil Star Assassin, Zoltar's "sister". A Spectran officer said, "Mala, where is Lord Zoltar? And why are you in those strange, bloody clothes with a sandal missing?"

Mala slapped her officer across the face and screamed, "IT IS NOT for YOU to know of Zoltar's whereabouts! Only the Luminous One Himself knows where he is! Leave this miserable planet, now, before they raise the hue and cry! I have acheieved success! Three are dead, including a major member of their accursed Government! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HAAAAAA!" screamed "Mala" as she laughed like a demonness.

* * *

It did not take long for the murders of poor Danielle Kaperski and of Defense Minister Edward Ainsley to be discovered, along with the murder of the security guard. 'Nova's' shoe was found, and then, a security guard ran the camera in Ainsley's office when a Federal Police Detective Sergeant known as Cale McDermott arrived.

"My God, in heavens above, Wildstar did this. Commander Wildstar's gone bloody rogue," said McDermott as he ran the video while police photographers photographed the middle-aged man's horribly mutilated corpse.

"Sir, look at the camera in here with the secretary," said another detective known as Detective Sergeant Daisuke Kaiyama. "This tape has a different goon on it…look at this guy…he has a green face…yeeecccchh…."

"Probably a Cometine Agent," said McDermott. "Ugly, too. Nova Wildstar is known to associate now and then with a Cometine known as Duchess Caella, based on our files. She's some kind of defector…."

"I'm running this tape forward…here she is again…coming out of his office….here she is losing her shoe," said Kaiyama. "Get that sandal bagged and into evidence. And someone take a print of that damn footprint on the blood puddle here."

"So what do we do?" said McDermott.

"Easy. We know Commander Wildstar's gone rogue. Get this to the DA's office, and then, I went you to get an arrest warrant for her ASAP. Nova Wildstar is to be charged with two murders, complicity in a third, complicity in a rape, and High Treason for attacking an official of the Earth Government with deadly force. I want her in cuffs at Police HQ in the next two hours. For planetary security purposes, let's keep this quiet, no Miranda warning, no bail, and no fraking lawyer. We'll let Stone know."

"And?" said McDermott.

"She'll be up before an SS Court in 24 hours in secret, and dead maybe 12 hours later, firing squad. When someone in EDF goes rogue, we have to crush them fast."

* * *

At home, Nova had just put on a nice white sundress, trimmed in green, with a green print pattern. With matching white high-heeled sandals, Nova looked simply adorable and very gentle in her dress.

"Derek, when are we going out with the kids?" Nova said.

"Soon, hon…I'm looking for my shirt," Derek said.

The doorbell rang, and Nova duly opened it. "Yes?" she said as Kaiyama and McDermott came into the foyer, waving badges. They were followed by two policewomen who looked very grim.

"Ma'am," said McDermott, who looked at Nova's clean, composed appearance and shook his head, thinking… _Something doesn't add up here…she's too clean….she should have blood on her somewhere….she smeared her own face with blood on that video…._ He walked up to her, cleared his throat, and said, "Ma'am, are you Commander Nova Wildstar?"

"Yes, I am," Nova said softly. She hadn't put on the news, and neither had Derek, so neither of them even knew of the murders yet. "Do you gentlemen need some help with my case or with Diane Sandor's case? I know they're still being investigated."

"Actually, ma'am, you can help us in another way," said Kaiyama, almost sadly as Derek came in with a polo shirt on.

"Nova, who are these people?" Derek snapped.

"Detectives, Derek. They probably need some help from us in regards to those unsolved terrorist cases."

"You can best help us, ma'am…by coming along quietly," said McDermott. "And please cut the 'I'm innocent' bullshit. We know you killed them."

"_What_?" Nova said in utter shock as a policewoman grabbed her and pulled her arms behind her back. She was locked in handcuffs a moment later.

"Commander Nova Wildstar, it is my duty to place you under arrest," said Kaiyama in a flat voice. "You are charged with the murder, as of this afternoon, of Defense Minister Edward Ainsley, Security Guard Koshiro Iimura, and of being an accessory in the murder and rape of Danielle Kaperski. You are also charged with high treason for the attack upon Defense Minister Ainsley. All of these are capital offenses…unfortunately, we can only execute you once, _bitch_!" snapped Kaiyama as he slapped Nova across the face. She screamed, and yelled as she was dragged off her feet and a policewoman put shackles on her ankles. A policewoman threw her against the wall as Nova cried, "Derek! This is _illegal_! Get my dad in here! They're not even reading me my RIGHTS!" she screamed.

"Karl!" yelled Derek as Karl and Teri Forrester ran in, along with Alex and Ariel.

"What is going on here?" demanded Karl Forrester. "I'm an attorney! What are you people doing to my daughter?"

"Shut up!" yelled Kaiyama. "This woman is a dangerous killer and probably a maniac! We have your daughter on video cutting someone's throat on the Fifth Floor of the Parliamentary Office Building at close to 1400 Hours today."

"I was in the bath with my babies then!" Nova screamed. Then, Derek walked up to Kaiyama and said, "Detective, this officer serves in my command. I demand military jurisdiction over the case, and I demand that this officer is to be transported to the _Argo_ at once, there to be held under confinement on board ship until her preliminary hearing and court-martial!"

"Derek, you _wouldn't!_!" Nova cried with rage in her eyes.

Derek whispered in her ear, "Nova, love, I'm getting you out of this. I know you're innocent, and any regular prelim board I call will see that in five minutes. You'll just be confined to our quarters for two or three days with Alex and Ariel until we clear this up and tear up the charges. We know you did absolutely nothing wrong…all right? And I will make sure that this does not harm your record in any way."

"O…okay," Nova whispered back, smiling a little. Nova then kissed him as Kaiyama said, "Your request is denied, Commodore."

"Denied?" roared Derek. "This is so…I OUTRANK YOU!" Derek snapped.

"This is under the jurisdiction of the Secret Services, or the SS," smiled Kaiyama. "This is a matter of planetary security, and the woman is now in SS hands, as far as we are concerned. Take her away _now_!"

Then, a policewoman dragged a crying Nova out of the house while the Paparazzi showed up to put her arrest on live video

Karl asked, "Detective, where is she going to be held? I'm going to go to Court."

"For what?" Derek whispered.

"_A Habeas Corpus_ writ," whispered Karl. "That will make them put their charges up before a _real_ Federal Judge in twenty-four hours. Then, we'll respond with our own evidence."

"She's going to be held on the Third Floor, Homicide," said McDermott as more policemen showed up. "Oh, guess what? You're going to come there with her for questioning…"

"Why?" demanded Karl.

"You're all under arrest as material witnesses. For your own protection," said Kaiyama with a sneer as a shocked Derek was the next one cuffed and shoved into a police cruiser.

Ariel ran out of the house, crying, towards her mother, screaming. "Where MOMMY GOING? Want Mommy!"

A policeman shoved the toddler to separate her from her mother. Nova saw this and began to fight like a wildcat to get out of the police car to get to her child.

"SHUT UP!" yelled a policeman, who half-dragged Nova out of the car. He was about to smash the defenseless officer over the head with his baton when one of the policewomen said, "For heaven's sakes, let her children get in the car with her! She might be innocent, for all we know."

Nova sniffed as Alex and Ariel, in their little summer outfits, got into the car with her. The policewoman looked at Nova and said, "Ma'am, if it helps, I think you're innocent. I'll see to it you and they are cared for. My name is Sergeant Fujiko Kosugi. I'll do what I can for you…and I'm placing my own call to a major detective that I think can clear this up…"

"Who?" sobbed Nova.

"Detective Commander Yuri Tsukikage. She's your age, but she's a genius. If anyone can get you and Commodore Wildstar out of this, she can. I'll place a call to her now…"

"Thanks," Nova sobbed, as another policewoman randomly put something on the seat beside her.

It was a small, inexpensive, digital video camera in pink.

Her HotShot camera.

The camera that held her video of her playing with Alex and Ariel in the tub.

It held her alibi.

* * *

For some reason, after they patted him down, they let Commodore Wildstar watch Nova's processing into Homicide.

They took off her handcuffs and leg shackles….but only for a short time, because (Derek was gritting his teeth at this) two of the policewomen and Detective Kaiyama made Nova take all of her clothes off right in front of them. Derek tried to escape twice to aid her because one of the policewomen seemed to take particular pleasure in slapping Nova across the face right before they made her bend over a table for a body cavity search that was done so roughly it made Nova weep in pain.

Nova pleaded, "Please, for God's sakes..STOP it! Stop hurting me!"

Nova and Derek were in an interrogation room behind a curtain—until the detective threw open the curtain and exposed Nova in her pain, nakedness, and humililation to the whole squad room, that is. Nova wept as she saw policemen laughing at her while the search was being done.

She also tried to yell for help when she saw Katrina and Foxy brought into the squad room outside.

"What is the meaning of this?" Katrina yelled. She had been arrested at her home in a bikini; and the police had made her and Foxy come to police headquarters barefoot in their wet swimwear.

Then, Katrina looked in the window and saw Nova undergoing her ordeal naked, and she yelled at the policemen holding her, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY FRIEND?"

"Shut up!" snapped one policewoman as she slapped Katrina across the face. She tried to fight, but one of them yelled, "You are both material witnesses in this because we know you two were talking on the phone today! You may be a co-conspirator!"

"Help me, Katrina!" Nova was heard to scream through the glass. "Get my father! They didn't even read me my rights! I'm accused of murder!"

"SHUT UP!" said one of the policewomen, who slapped Nova again as she clung to a curtain in the interrogation room as another policewoman finished the humiliating search of her person. Katrina and Foxy tried to fight free, but they were dragged off to another interrogation room, where they were handcuffed to chairs and left alone in the near-dark.

"Why are you doing this to her in front of me?" demanded Derek, whom they had handcuffed to a table on a chain…after they stripped him naked and did a body search on him, as well (right in front of Nova), while he struggled to get free and punch at his tormentors. "Why the hell are you making me watch you people abusing one of my best officers?"

"Because she's a kiler," snapped Kaiyama. He looked at Nova and slapped her again and screamed in her face, "Why don't you confess? YOU DID IT, DIDN'T YOU?"

"You're _crazy_!" Nova cried back. "Derek, where's the video camera? It'll prove me _innocent_! Look at that, and then let me go, because you are about to get the biggest police brutality suit of your damned lives!"

"Shut UP!" roared one of the policewomen as she slapped Nova in the face. "That doesn't work here, you damned _liberal! _We're all Secret Services, aka SS. The SS runs its own house,and we don't have to obey police procedure, the Constitution, military regs, or the orders of anyone except Colonel Maples! And Colonel Maples has already determined that you probably did it!"

"I say take her off to Room 101 now," snapped Kaiyama. Room 101, blandly called "Central Interrogation" was a locked room used only by the SS that could quickly be converted into a torture chamber. Kaiyama had equipment and brutal SS policemen and policewomen in his employ who loved to torture supects to force them to confess. "Right in her damn birthday suit. We'll break her down there in two hours. And why the hell are we letting HIM hear this?" Kaiyama demanded.

Nova overheard and yelled back, "Then, you'll have to kill me! I've been trained to resist torture! I won't easily give in to YOU!"

Derek remembered that training and shivered as he sat there in his skin. He had arranged for Peale from Living Group to perform "torture" sessions upon the whole bridge crew during a training exercise. The "torture" had included rough questioning, bright lights, deprivation of fluids, cursing, mild slaps in the face, mild electrical shocks, undressing down to underclothes…that sort of thing. The scores received by the bridge crew depended upon how long it took to "break" them. Homer had not done well under "torture", getting a score in the low eighties and "breaking" after three and a half hours. Doctor Sane lasted a bit longer, breaking at four hours. Eager had gone for five hours, Domon had lasted a while, and..then..Sandor…he had gone for six hours, and scored a 98.2 in the training exercise. Derek himself had endured the "torture" for a bit over seven hours before beginning to tell his "captors" lies. While he had not really broken, he was given a 99 because he had been beginning to cooperate, or pretending to.

The last person to endure the training was Nova. She had been given the option to postpone the training for another day, since she had been fighting a mild case of the flu.

Nova refused. She took the training like the men, shivering in a slight fever in the interrogation chair in just her panties and bra. Nova was given the option, due to her sickness and frail appearance, to stop it at any time.

Her "torture" session had lasted for over eight hours. She had more willpower than any of the men, and even more than Sasha (who had gone for just under six hours). The session was not pretty. Nova had yelled at Peale, screamed at him, cursed his parentage, asked him if he was born in a barn with pigs, but she had not broken or cooperated with her captors one bit. Peale was the one who stopped it because she was driving _him_ crazy. Nova's score for the exercise had been the only 100 of the session.

One of the policewomen said, "Commodore Wildstar here is a flag officer and the bitch's Commanding Officer. Unfortunately, he already demanded she be released to him once. If that lawyer father of hers gets that phone call, we're screwed."

"Get her mug shot," snapped another officer.

Nova, still nude, was hustled to a corner where they set a board in front of her and formally took a mug shot and booked her as a criminal. This was far worse than when she had been arrested and held in jail with Katrina for fighting because, this time, they weren't even giving her any prison clothes to wear.

In the picture, she looked as if she was about to cry, and the fact that she had on no shirt (or anything else) was pretty obvious. Nova almost vomited when she saw the picture. Nova had, of course posed both clothed and in the nude before (and in fact, a book that she had written on pregnancy and child care that would be out soon featured both her and Sasha in some shots as nude models demonstrating breastfeeding, the proper way to bathe a baby and the like) but this picture had none of the artistry of either her mother's or Derek's loving photography of her form. It looked cold, sad, and clinical. Yet, some of her beauty still shone out in the picture.

"Why am I not even being given a prison jumpsuit this time?" Nova sobbed. "And I should at least get some shower thongs. This floor is cold when you have to stand on it barefoot."

"Maybe we'll put something on your damn bare ass when you confess," snapped a policeman. "Now sit DOWN!"

The policeman (who should not even have been seeing her undressed) grabbed Nova by the arm, shoved her down in a chair, and pulled out her hands and handcuffed her again. The handcuffs were then chained to a ring on the table.

"You're lucky it's summer," whispered a policewoman in her ear. "One winter, those SS people stripped a prisoner naked and made him stand out in the courtyard in the night until he got frostbite…"

The policemen and policewomen trooped out, laughing, leaving Nova alone with Derek. They were both cuffed, and chained down to the tables.

"You know," Derek said. "I'd try to pick those locks on your handcuffs with something, but they've got me cuffed, too…and they took my clothes as well as yours…" Derek said.

"Derek, what's going to happen to us?" Nova sobbed in a pathetic voice. "And why won't they let me see our babies or my parents?"

"Those SS people are maniacs," Derek snapped. "They're under the jurisdiction of that Colonel Maples and Goddamn General Stone."

"_General Stone_," Nova said as she began to cry. "Why the hell does he hate us so much?"

"I think he still may have a grudge against us because of the Comet Empire," Derek said. "He's never been nice to us…"

"I wish he'd die, God forgive me!" Nova sobbed. "You know I'm innocent…Jonathan knows I'm innocent….our children know I'm innocent, and so do my parents…"

"If Commanding General Singleton hears about this, Nova, he'll get us out of here…"

"What if he doesn't hear, Derek? I might be dead by morning at Sumida!" Nova sobbed.

"I might be joining you," Derek said. "They were talking about killing me, too…"

"Then what will happen to Alex, Ariel, and Jonathan?" Nova sobbed.

The door opened, and a young woman in a black suit and matching black sandals who had light purple hair and glasses came into the room. Nova gasped as she came in, carrying a large metal suitcase.

The young woman looked very shy and studious. She closed the door and said, "So, you two are the famous Commodore Derek Wildstar and Commander Nova Wildstar? I'm very pleased to meet you, although I wish it was under better circusmtances." She looked at Nova and shook her head. "Oh, _kamisama._ They didn't even give you a prison jumpsuit? Or him?"

Nova shook her head. "I'm totally naked. They took _everything_ away from us when they searched us…even my wedding band! Now, I'm not a prude…I like being naked on a beach or at home with our toddlers…but not in a place like _this_!" Then, Nova began to shiver and cry.

"Shhhh..," said the young woman as she stroked Nova's hand. Nova noticed she was very pretty, with delicate features behind her glasses. "It's all right. I outrank those SS Detectives, and, even though it may cost me my job, I just put a restraining order on their actions. A field team came in and gave me evidence that makes me think someone wants to solve this in a hurry by just framing you, rather than by trying to find the alien who was disguised as you. Stand up a minute, Nova," said the young woman, who actually unlocked the chain holding her to the table. Then, she unlocked Derek's chain and let him go free, even though he was blushing because he was nude in front of Yuri. "Don't do anything violent, either of you…even know I know you're tempted…I'm on your side," said the young detective. "Stand over here." The young woman looked at Nova from head to toe. "First, before you wonder why I am having you stand in funny positions before I let you get dressed…yes…I have your clothing and Derek's clothes and your shoes and jewelry in this suitcase…let me introduce myself, please."

The young woman bowed and said, "My name is Detective Commander Yuri Tsukigage, EDF Criminal Investigative Division office, ma'am…" she said to Nova as she saluted her. "I've…only been a full Commander for five days, so you outrank me, ma'am, and I've always admired you and the Commodore. I'm twenty-eight, an Academy Graduate, with Masters' Work at Tokyo University and a law degree from Yale. Did intern work for the local US FBI in Washington, and I'll be taking some Forensics courses at Central Medical School starting in the fall…"

Nova's mouth dropped open a little. "Uhh…Commander, I may see you in the fall. I'm supposed to start in the full MD Program at Central in the fall, and I may be in Forensics I if I can test out of taking Physiology I."

"Commander Tsukikage," Derek said. "It sounds like if they have any sense, they should let the two of you work together on these terrorist attacks, rapes, and murders…"

"Oh, I'm sure they will," said Yuri quietly. "Nova, before I let you get dressed, stand up straight. There…that's nice," she said as she opened the suitcase and began to photograph Nova with a small digital camera. "I've seen the video of the person who murdered Ainsley, badly disguised as you, I must note. That fool's stance is all off. I can see you're military by the way you stand, with a hint of…dance training?"

"Former gymnast and cheerleader," Nova said. "I also do some modern jazz dance, and I'm just learning Iscandarian Dance from my niece Sasha."

"What is that like?" asked Yuri.

"A bit like a cross between Jazz, Modern, and some martial arts disciplines. The traditional style is done in the nude except for a long scarf you wear as ornamentation around yourself. You have to flex a lot, and it's a good thing that you're barefoot during the dance, because you go up on the balls of your feet a lot, like this," Nova said as she demonstated a move. "Sasha says I'm terrible at it, but…"

Yuri whistled. "Let me get a picture of you in that pose…keep your back straight…there!" she said. "That was _not_ you in that video…that person's stance was wrong…all wrong," Yuri said. She then took out a piece of paper and said, "Now put your right foot down here…let me trace it…then, I'm going to put some ink on the sole of your foot and get a footprint…" Yuri made a tracing as Derek looked on, and she said, "Nova, what sort of shoes do you usually wear?"

"Standard military boots aboard ship…sneakers when I run…the rest of the time, especially in this weather, I've either been in sandals or barefoot most of the time," Nova said.

Yuri smiled. "My guess…your toes spread out just a little bit…like mine have been lately," she said, showing that she also had sandals on…dressy flats with a thong-type front, to be exact. Yuri's shoe, while it stayed on securely with a back strap, left her close to barefoot, which she found very comfortable when walking around all day in the sticky heat. "What's your shoe size…seven?"

"Seven narrow," Nova said with a smile.

"Now, let's get your footprint," Yuri said. Yuri put some ink on the bottom of Nova's bare foot and got her to step on another piece of paper. "Beautiful print," she said. "Wipe with this. I can see right now that the real killer, who left a bare footprint of her own….seems to wear boots and heels most of the time…her foot is all squished up compared to yours, and it's a size nine. No way you two are the same person," Yuri said while showing Nova a picture of the killer's bloody footprint…it was obvious that the killer's footprint and Nova's were very much different. "Do you want to get dressed yet?"

"Uhh.." Nova said. "Derek, how long have I been apart from Alex and Ariel?"

"Nearly four hours, I think," Derek said. "Why, dear?"

"Uhh…my breasts are starting to hurt…our children are eleven months old, Commander Tsukikage…..I still breastfeed them…"

Yuri placed a phone call. "Segreant Kosugi?"

"Yes, ma'am?" she said. Nova recognized the voice of the kind policewoman who had helped her before.

"Are the Wildstar children still with their grandparents?"

"They are. And they're crying, poor dears…"

"They need their mother, and she has to nurse, anyway….bring them in to her. Nova, are there any special things you need? Diapers? A cushion? A breastfeeding shirt?"

"I just need a futon, a basin of warm water, and a towel or two," Nova said. "I don't need any special garments…since they're twins, I usually nurse them just like this…in the nude in this heat…and I like to give them a little bath while I feed them…sometimes…uh…my husband helps, and…he gives me a bath, too," Nova said in a very small voice.

"That sounds so sweet," said Yuri with a smile. She looked in Nova's suitcase and said, "What's this?"

"A HotShot camera," Derek said. "We got it to take video of Nova playing with the babies in the yard, pool, bath and stuff. We have some video on it from today…."

"And I know you can't change the timestamp on these," said Yuri as she connected the camera and ran the most recent video..several minutes' worth of Nova playing with Alex and Ariel under the sprinkler, some video of her nursing them, and then some video of mother and toddlers playing in the tub. Nova blushed a little, realizing that this was private family video of her playing naked with her babies.

Yuri noticed several things at once. Not only was Nova nude, she was also very wet in the video. In fact, her hair was soaked. Her fingers and toes were wrinkled from contact with the water, and her slight suntan was very much in evidence…and, of course, she was very, _very_ clean.

And…there was the timestamp….AUGUST 16, 2208….and the video ran continuously (but a little shakily) from 1339 to 1400 Hours. A very important twenty-one minutes…

Yuri thought, _These twenty-one minutes prove beyond the shadow of all doubt that the real Nova Wildstar did not kill Edward Ainsley, nor did she kill that security guard, and she had nothing to do with the rape or murder of Danielle Kaperski. How could she have anything to do with it? This proves she was home with her children, wet, clean, naked except for her wedding band, and she was actually giving her son her breast in the nude right at 1353, at the same time the impostor was dry, clean, fully dressed, and about to get bloody from cutting Defense Minister Ainsley's throat…_ Yuri then paused the video at 1354 and giggled out loud. "Awwww, this is _so cute_!" she said as she pointed at a still of a naked little Alex peeing all over his naked mother's breasts as he was tickled. "Does he do that often?"

"Yes," giggled Nova. "We're trying to potty-train him, but the poor little dear still has accidents…"

Yuri said, "This will exonerate you beyond all doubt, ma'am. On the video from Defense Minister Ainsley's office, the impostor was cutting his throat and getting blood sprayed upon her uniform at the same moment your son was…peeing on your bare chest. May I download this right to my superiors at Earth Defense, along with the other video? I promise it will be kept confidential…"

"Uhh..sure," Derek said. Nova nodded as a tap came at the door. Karl and Teri came in, holding a crying Alex and Ariel as two policewomen came in with the futon and other things Nova had asked for. Soon, Nova was sittting crosslegged (and still nude) on the futon as she and Derek hugged while checking Alex and Ariel, finding their training pants were a little wet, and then comforting them as they undressed the toddlers and Derek began bathing them while Nova tenderly gave them her breasts with tears running down her cheeks.

Yuri looked at the little family, smiling as Derek cuddled both his wife and babies as Ariel took a moment to sing to Nova and Derek in her little babyish voice, and Nova crooned a song back at her little daughter, joined by Derek.

Yuri blushed and turned her head as she left, noticing that Derek was tenderly kissing the side of Nova's neck. She looked at Teri and whispered, "Uhh…do they ever get romantic after they feed, bathe, and play with them?"

"They do," Teri whispered. "Sometimes…during…God love them. My daughter's such a sweet, sensitive soul…and she loves him so much…and their hands are always on each other…they're still almost like teenagers. It's so cute…don't you agree?"

Yuri blushed and nodded as she stepped out of the interrogation room and turned down the lights after she took Nova's HotShot camera and the other evidence. "Commodore, Commander!" she said softly. "I'm turning these lights down for you two and the babies and ordering that you two are to be left all alone in here with them. As far as I'm concerned, you're all harmless. I'm going to be about an hour or an hour and a half until I get this all cleared up so we can drop the charges against the Commander. Is there any music you'd like piped in?"

"Yes, classical," Nova said. "The babies like Bach…"

Yuri nodded and smiled. She stepped out and locked the door. "Sergeant, do not disturb them for any reason until I come back with the official papers dropping all of the charges and apologizing to Commander Wildstar and Admiral Wildstar for everything that's happened. I'm also recommending to Commanding General Singleton that we undertake a severe housecleaning of the damn SS and that we fire some people. He'll surely see that Commander Wildstar is totally innocent when he sees both videos…and all the physical evidence…especially when I show him everything from the Parliament Office Building that proves that not only did Nova not do anything she is accused of…but that the alien…freak who did it….transformed into her. Why did no one else catch this?"

"Leave the parents in there alone with the kids?" said the Sergeant.

"Yes," Yuri said. "And make sure they are left completely alone. If the Commodore and the Commander want to…get romantic…after they put the babies to sleep, it's none of _our_ business. I think they earned it, and they _are _married. Let's go."

* * *

Yuri's guess was perfectly correct….since the Wildstars _were_, indeed, "getting romantic" after putting the babies to sleep.

Derek was very gentle with Nova as she took him on the futon. There had been a lot of foreplay, and a lot of tenderness, and Derek finally encouraged his young wife to throw up her legs and have some fun.

Nova did so, kissing and holding Derek as he went at her, just as he had earlier that afternoon in their hot backyard.

"I love you so much," Nova sobbed as Derek nuzzled her nose.

"Nova, I'm glad that they aren't going to kill us…"

"I'm glad they aren't going to kill you," Nova gasped as they made love. "Or…me….I don't particularly want to die yet…"

"Me neither," Derek said.

They stopped talking as they kissed, went at each other with joy in their hearts, and had a happy, sexy interlude all alone as they finally climaxed, exploding lovingly against each other as they finally finished, and then they lay there…spent, happy, and very much in love with each other.

When they were done, they washed up with some baby wipes, and Derek tenderly helped Nova dress in the panties, sundress, and sandals that the police had made her take off. Nova helped Derek dress in the polo shirt, gym shorts, and sandals he had on when he had also been arrested.

They were decent just as a knock came at the door. Nova opened the door, and in came Yuri Tsukikage, escorting in Foxy and Katrina. Foxy still wore only his swimsuit, but Yuri saw to it that Katrina had been given a white lab coat to wear over her bikini as a cover-up.

"Are you all right?" Katrina asked as she hugged Nova. "This is an outrage!"

"We're fine,' Nova said. "Ms. Tsukikage?"

"I got them to see all of the evidence," said Yuri. "All of you are now free to go on Commanding General Singleton's orders, but we do have something to ask of Nova."

"Which is?" she said.

"May we take a blood sample from you, Commander?" asked Yuri. "We'd like to study it as part of the investigation, as a control. We'd also like you to help us analyse some blood we found at the scene of the crime…and then, tonight….would you come to the morgue at Central Hospital when we autopsy the victims? Given what you went through today, you are perfectly free to refuse, but…"

"I have no problem with this." Nova sighed as Katrina gave her an annoyed look. "Derek, Katrina, I'd love to help them find the real killers. As for the detectives who abused me, though?"

"They're off the case, and are, in fact, suspended as of now," Yuri said. "I'm in charge of the investigation from this point onwards.

"Okay," said Derek. "Just as long as we're out of here fast!"

"This should not take long," Yuri said. And, at that, Katrina and Foxy, free to go, left, going back home, outraged at the tactics of the SS.

* * *

Some of the other detectives grumbled a little when Tsukikage brought into the crime lab the person who had been the primary suspect. Nova had on a lab coat over her dress, just as Yuri now wore over her outfit, although her arm was bandanged at the crook of her elbow after she had given her blood sample.

She and Yuri both looked into a microscope together and Yuri asked, "What do you think of this blood?"

"This person used to be human…I think…" Nova said. "Now, he appears to be a mutant. The platelets are all weird."

"Whose blood is this?" asked Derek as he held one of the kids, namely Alex. Ariel toddled along beside him.

"That's the suspect's," said another detective. "He…or she…got shot once and bled on a fire extinguisher at the scene of the crime. And the blood definitely does not match Commander Wildstar's blood. Not even the same blood type."

"He or she is way off," Nova said. "The suspect also seems to be of both genders…"

"How?" said another detective.

"I'm finding chromosomal markers there for both a male and a female." Nova said after scanning the sample with a deep scan. "This DNA is all messed up…"

"You're telling me," Yuri said. "We're looking for an alien, then?"

Nova nodded her head. "And I think…although I don't know…I think he's been seen before…."

* * *

General Stone was in a very nasty state of mind as he arrived in his Staff Car near the Federation Police Headquarters.

"Stop the damn thing here, Fujita, I'll walk!"

"Yessir," said his driver, a Segreant Fujita. "I'll be parking by this McDonald's. You'll have to cross the street, sir."

"No problem," growled Stone as he got out of the car clutching his smelly cigar between his teeth. His personal phone rang as he got out. He answered it. "Yes?" he snarled. "Oh, hello, Jade, dearest. Yes, honey, we're still on for tonight. I may be a little late. I expect to attend a secret SS, or Secret Service, treason trial tonight at Sumida Military Prison. Who? Her. Haven't you heard the news, dear? Colonel Maples will be doing the trial. It will be nice and quick and neat. We have her nailed, and we plan to put her up before a firing squad at ten tonight. Too bad I have to execute the little Fluff, but she went wacky on us. Must have been some kind of post-partum depression that caused her to go mad and slit my frat brother Ainsley's throat. Yes, dear, after Nova's dead, I'll bring you a lock of her hair before we release the body to that damn Commodore Wildstar. No, dear, you can't go to her funeral," said Stone, growling at a young family sitting in McDonald's behind the glass.

The family sickened him. They were too damn cute. He looked through the glass. They were there, four of them. A little girl with blond hair in a sundress maybe a year old, throwing French Fries from a Happy Meal at her brother, a tyke of about a year old with tousled dark hair whipping a bit of a hamburger back at his sister. The boy sat on the lap of a kid with messy dark hair wearing a polo shirt who looked sort of familiar to Stone, but he could not place him, as the fool hard a hard time telling civilians not in uniform apart! The little girl sat next to a young woman with messy honey-blond hair who sort of looked like the woman he wanted dead tonight; except that it couldn't be her; she had on pink, little round sunglasses and wore a white sundress with a green print pattern on it that left her shoulders bare. She laughed as the dweeb who had to be her husband or boyfriend whipped a Frency Fry at her, and she laughed as she threw one back at the young man.

Stone snarled at the family, and crossed the street. He went into Police HQ, flashing his ID like some tinpot dictator.

He went up to the Third Floor and emerged in a bullpen of detectives. He saw a woman with dark purple hair, delicate features, and glasses blocking his way. "Where the hell is she?" he snapped. "I want to give that bitch a piece of my mind before we put her in a prison jumpsuit and haul her off to Sumida for her secret trial. And who are you?"

The young woman in glasses bowed slightly. "Detective Commander Yuri Tsukikage, General. I'm pleased to meet you. However, I need to let you know that we have a long job ahead of us before we find the murderer of Defense Minister Ainsley."

"What do you mean a long job?" snapped Stone. "It's Commander Nova Wildstar! The cameras caught the little bitch going crazy with a K-Bar knife in his office..."

"And she was exonerated four hours ago by physical and circumstancial evidence, General," snapped Tsukikage. "We found a bare footprint in Ainsley's blood. The killer wore a size nine shoe and had a very strange print pattern on her toes that didn't match Wildstar's at all. Also, Wildstar wears a size seven shoe. And, we have evidence from an ordinary HotShot video camera that indicates Nova was home in the tub playing with her children at 1343 Hours, right when the timestamp from the security cameras indicate the murder took place. She can't be in two places at once. And there's other evidence, if you wold like me to go over it with you."

"Home video cameras have timestamps you can fake!" yelled Stone.

"Not a HotShot. An ordinary HotShot can be purchased at Sumida's, WalMart, or Sears for ninety credits, and you can't change the timestamp in an inexpensive camera like that. Nova probably bought the camera on sale specifcially for the bathroom or something," said Yuri with a smile. "And I had orders from General Singleton to let her go once he saw this evidence. She was nice enough to help us with blood work and lab work."

"Where is she now?" Stone snapped.

"At McDonald's, across the street, probably," said Yuri.

Stone ran out of the Police Headquarters and ran across the street to McDonald's. There were the damn Wildstars, sitting right at the window.

Stone ran in and snarled at Nova. "Listen, you, what are you doing here? You're under arrest!"

"No I'm not," Nova said mildly as she wiped Ariel's face with a napkin while Derek glared at him. "Like a leftover Big Mac, General Stone? Derek wasn't hungry for three after all..."

Stone just threw up his hands and screamed. Then, he ran out.

* * *

Later that evening, after they got home, and Jonathan helped his mother get Alex and Ariel into bed after they were given their dinner in their highchairs and a bath, play, and love from their Mommy, Nova and Derek went back downtown; only, this time, they went out for a late-night dinner in a jazz club.

Nova wore the same outfit she had had worn for most of the day, having added a necklace and put on glittery silver sandals that matched the necklace. Derek wore a dark suit with a red vest and bright red tie.

Derek took a picture of Nova before he pushed in her chair and he helped her sit. She looked elegant and sweet at the same time in the dim light of the jazz lounge.

Finally, as they sat down and the pianist started up again (they were seated near the piano), Derek said to her, "Thank heavens we got out of that one. We owe that Yuri a big debt for getting us out of the hands of those SS creeps…and Stone."

"Stone's always on our butts, Derek," Nova said. "I wish I knew quite…why…"

"So do I," Derek said as the waitress came. "Yes," Derek said. "I'd like a Scotch and Coke. Nova?"

"I'll take a Bloody Mary, but please go _very_ light on the vodka," Nova said.

"Of course," said the waitress, who smiled at them and left.

"Stone sure sounded mad before, Derek," Nova said when their drinks came.

"We pissed him off good," Derek said.

"Yeah, we sure did," Nova laughed. "Shall we make a toast?"

"Yes," Derek said. "To our future….and to the capture of the creep behind these murders…"

"I agree with that," Nova said. They clinked glasses and drank.

They would be doing more, much more, at home again that night, after Nova went back to Central Hospital and assisted in the autopsies, that is.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED…..**


	4. Chapter 4

**THE FIRE IN THEIR EYES**

**A VERY Dark Star Blazers fanfic (Rating: Heavy R): THIS TALE IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH! INCLUDES SOME VERY MATURE SUBJECT MATTER & ARTWORK. **

**PART FOUR: REVELATIONS AND MISSIONS **

**By Frederick P. "Freddo" Kopetz**

**References to Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato are intended as homages and no infringement is intended. Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato are © 2011 by Voyager Entertainment and Engagio Productions. Includes References to _Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman_ (created by Tatsunoko Productions and Sandy Frank Productions) are © 2011 by those production companies, along with references to characters and situations from the works of Stephen King. These are all intended as homages; no infringement is intended.**

**Thanks to "Yuki Wildstar," Gail Kopetz, and Ami Meitsu for ideas contributed to this chapter**

**Thanks to SAMANTHA NOCERA for ideas contributed to this chapter. Thanks also to ANONYMOUS READER for ideas contributed.**

* * *

**I. STRANGE DAYS INDEED**

**Earth**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**A Consultation Room**

**Central** **Hospital Medical School**

**August 16, 2208**

* * *

It was still Tuesday, August 16, 2208.

Nova had returned home to Derek and her family at about 2330 that night after the autopsies for Defense Minister Ainsley, Danielle Kaperski, and the security guard that had been killed in the government offices in the Great Megalopolis.

Now, in the grey light of about 5 in the morning on Wednesday, the 17th, just a few hours before the _Argo_ was set to leave Earth, Doctor Sane, Doctor M'Ben Kitara (now a Commodore and a Professor at Central Hospital Medical School, he had been called in to consult on the exams) and Doctor Kei Stuart, Doctor Sane's colleague and lady love, were all discussing the blood work taken at the crime scene, the corpses of the victims, and the body of the exonerated suspect, namely Nova herself.

Doctor Sane looked over the microscope slides and said, "Our work confirms the quick DNA study taken late yesterday afternoon by Nurse Wildstar and Detective Tsukikage. The blood taken from the actual murderer **used** to be human, but it is now so mutated that it can only be called alien." Sane sighed and said, "Kitara, I know you and I have disagreed sharply in the past, but surely you, Professor, can see that this blood is not even remotely like ours."

"No, it is not," said Kitara slowly in his deep West African accent. "It is the blood of a hermaphrodite. I see traces that would appear that two twins, a male and a female, were melded together into one being."

"But such a thing is not remotely possible, sir," said Doctor Stuart.

"The evidence, woman, speaks for itself!" snapped Kitara. "What we are dealing with here is some alien freak. This killer was someone so bio-engineered by some unknown entity that it is not remotely a human. It is some new, weird species."

"And definitely not my best nurse, soon to be one of your students," said Doctor Sane. "Nova's as normal and human as apple pie; with some sushi mixed in, of course," laughed Sane.

"Are we so sure of _her_?" said Kitara, who looked at Stuart and nodded. "Those results of that paternity test…"

"Nonsense, sir, they just prove Karl Forrester is her father," said Doctor Stuart. "There were a few odd things we found in her blood, probably accountable to her having activated the Cosmo-DNA twice in her life; one in 2200 on Earth and again in 2203 on Planet Rikasha….and…"

"They are not all accountable to that," said Kitara.

"I do her blood work," said Sane. "These markers only began to show up in her genetic structure after 2200…"

"And has it escaped your notice, Doctor?" said Kitara, "That these markers have only been found in the blood of Astra of Iscandar, Starsha, Sasha both of Iscandar, and Aliscea and Astrena of Pellias; oh, yes, along with that Katrina of Pellias? These markers have been passed down, as well, to the Wildstars' natural-born children, Alexander and Ariel, who, we all well damn know, have demonstrated unusual genius and slightly faster than normal development for their age. And from Forrester-Wildstar's childhood history, we find that she was something of a prodigy in her early childhood as well, and was in all of the Gifted Classes in her education."

"What does that prove?" said Sane.

"Your best nurse is not entirely human or Terran, Sane! She, at some point in her family history, had either an Iscandarian or a Pellian in her family line! I tend to think both. And she is a mental, ticking Time Bomb. A psychic time bomb, to be exact," said Kitara. "Perhaps she should be locked away in the plague center in Stovington, Vermont, and kept comfortable and _studied_. As we would have done had Trelaina of Telezart ever come to Earth alive."

"We did that to her years ago, and then again after her children were born," huffed Sane. "Nova's too smart and does not care for long hospital stays. She can be cooperative with tests, up to a point. Although one procedure that was done to her in 2203 was so against Medical Ethics, that I did it to her while she was under anestheshia for another condition…only under direct orders from the EDF Chief of Staff and the International Scientific Organization. I detest such manipulation of someone's innards without informed consent…_and_ lying to a patient to cover it up!"

"Yes, Project Aerie," said Kitara as he looked over a folder.

"Something that I think will haunt us like Frankenstein's Monster someday," said Sane.

"What was that?" said Doctor Stuart.

"You don't have the clearance to know that, so you will not ask questions," snapped Kitara. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," hissed Doctor Stuart.

* * *

**II. KILLERS, ASSASSINS, AND CREEPERS**

**Earth**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**August 16, 2208**

**About 0500 Hours**

* * *

Nova was not home at the moment, even though the _Argo_ was set to depart in five hours.

It was about 0500 Hours, and she had gotten up after a late-night phone call at 0400 from Dr. Haruna Tsukikage, Yuri's mother, who had a PhD in physics and was a criminologist. Nova had never met her before; she was just a voice on the phone to Nova. (Nova also wondered why the Tsukikages did not have a video-phone, but she figured maybe they were having financial issues).

Dr. Tsukikage had tried to get some blood slides and tissue samples from Zoltar for her own study; and to give to Nova before the _Argo_ departed so that the Star Force could study them.

However, everything had been taken by the SS. Haruna had not been left with anything.

After a late-night huddle with Derek, Nova was ordered by him to get a small team together to raid SS Headquarters, get in and steal the slides and samples, and get out. Derek had inside intelligence that SS Headquarters had only very light security overnight before 0700 Hours.

Derek had told Nova, "Knowing you, you could get a group in and out fast. I do have plans of the complex. I'd go with you, but I have to board the _Argo_ early to ready the ship for our cruise." Derek suggested that Nova should lead the op, along with Yuri Tsukikage, Dr. Haruna Tskukikage, and perhaps someone else Nova could get at short notice. Nova suggested Katrina Savela.

So, with that taken care of, Derek kissed Nova goodbye and he told her to go and get back to the _Argo_ by 0900 so that she could met up with him, Alex and Ariel (who would be with them on this cruise) and Jonathan (who would be one of a group of JSCC cadets boarding the space battleship.

With that done, Nova called Katrina, and told her, "I'm coming over at 0430!"

"Why is _zat_?" yawned Katrina. "I am in ze bed with Foxy! Are you mad, Nova?"

"We have to strike back at the SS, and do it fast," Nova said. She explained why they had to raid SS Headquarters, and asked, "Could you be up and half-dressed in fifteen minutes? I know your clothing sizes, and I am running over with a combat assault uniform for you. And a weapon. Then we are going over to the Tsukikages' apartment to get Yuki and Haruna Tsukikage so that we can get their help in raiding SS Headquarters so that we can steal back the evidence about Zoltar that they stole from Dr. Tsukikage…and _us_, incidentially."

"Why you want me?" yawned Katrina.

"Katrina, you told me that you were trained in StrikeOps and you are a pilot," Nova said. "I've done enough for you, and you owe me a favor. I really need your help fighting that Zoltar…and those SS bastards. Or did you forget what they did to us?"

Katrina smiled. Nova had pushed the right button; Invidia's internal need for vengeance. "Yes, Nova. I am half asleep…but I vill help you!"

"Thank you," said Nova. "You don't know how much this means to me."

Nova then hung up.

Nova arrived at Foxworth Manor a few minutes later. Fully dressed in her black combat jumpsuit, leggings, black combat boots, and a black T-shirt that had an old Special Forces logo on it. It bore a skull, with the legend "_Kill "em All, Let God Sort 'Em Out_".

"Good morning, Katrina!" Nova yelled. "Ready to kick some SS butt this morning?"

"My Goddess above, you look like you have gone _mad_," Katrina said.

Nova was looking at Katrina in her underwear. "Please get up and get dressed. You have ten minutes. Hurry up. We have to strike that place before the full guard complement shows up."

Katrina glowered at Nova and said, "All right." She dressed in that uniform as quickly as she could as Foxy woke up and said, "Katrina! Where are you going?"

"I am going out with Nova to, as she told me one time, kick butt, take names, and murder people," said Katrina with a grin. "You know, Nova? Zis is almost fun?"

"Yeah, I know," Nova said as she clicked the safety on her weapon.

* * *

At the Tsukikages' apartment at 0500, Yuri and her mother had a somewhat unwelcome guest; a neighbor and co-worker of Yuri's named Tarou who was staying overnight. Now, the air conditioning in the building where the Tsukikages lived was not working well, but the air conditioning in Tarou's aparment was totally out.

With that said, Tarou's presence in the Tsukikages' small two-bedroom apartment was just barely tolerated by Yuri and Haruna.

Tarou, even though he was twenty-five, had a horrible crush on Haruna, who was now forty-nine going on fifty. Dr. Haruna Tsukikage had an appearance similar to that of her daughter, except that she did not wear glasses, and she looked very youthful for her age.

Tarou was up, looking for snacks. All he had on was his underpants, and he was sweating buckets.

Still he was curious. He was mumbling to himself, "Let me go see what Dr. Tsukikage sleeps in. Maybe she sleeps in the nude in this heat. _Rrrrrrroooowwwww_," muttered Tarou, who was a bit of a…pervert.

Tarou tiptoed over to Dr. Tsukikage's bedroom. He knew it was across from Yuri's.

He opened the door and looked in at Dr. Tsukikage. She was lying on the bed, sleeping innocently with the covers off in a black sports bra and black panties.

"Ohhhh…she looks better than Yuri," he growled to himself. "What a butt," he muttered. "What a BUTT!"

The door to the apartment opened. Someone was opening it with a key from the outside. Tarou was rubbing his hands and filled with lustful thoughts; so full of lustful thoughts that he did not hear the door opening; nor did he hear someone slipping up behind him, shining a flashlight about the apartment.

"Vat?" whispered Katrina. Tarou heard that. A hissed whisper. "What the fuck?" he muttered. "Burglars? Dr. Tsukikage, I will protect you from the burglars…."

"There's a male inside one of the bedrooms," Nova hissed in a low voice. "Back me up, Katrina. He looks like some kind of creeper…"

"Creeper?" hissed Katrina.

Tarou heard the stealthy steps, and he picked up a vase as Yuri heard noise in the apartment. She wore only a sleep shirt with a cat on it. She got up, and sneaked around, just in time to see her toes caught in a flashlight beam. "What?" she whispered.

"Help me get the creeper," Nova hissed to Katrina, signalling her in with hand signals. Yuri saw the two women slipping down the hallway with weapons in their hands, and she got a flashlight of her own. "What? Burglars? And Tarou's being a damn _creeper!_" she said out loud. "What is he doing in my mom's room?"

Nova slipped up a moment later and shone a flashlight in Yuri's face. The safey clicked off on her weapon. "Who are you? _Yuri_?"

"Nova?" hissed Yuri. "There's a creeper in here!"

"I think he's SS," Nova whispered. "Stay back…he is about to die," Nova said. "Katrina, guard the door. Anyone else comes in, kill them!"

"Right," said Katrina with a smile.

Nova slipped forward with three stealthy footsteps, and, suddenly, Tarou felt an arm unexpectedly grab him around the waist. The arm pulled him back against a warm, feminine body as he muttered, "Oh, BABY, you've got nice boobs…"

"Shut up," Nova hissed in his ear as he suddenly felt a cold blaster muzzle in his ear. "You have about five Goddamn seconds to start talking before I blow your brains out, you SS creeper! Or should that be Zoltar?" Nova hissed.

"ahhhhh…ahhhh…ahhhhh.." said Tarou as he pissed his pants! The hissing noise and splattering was very obvious.

Then, a moment later, the lights came on, and Yuri came out of the hall with a service .38 in her hand, and Dr. Tsukikage came out of her bedroom with a combat knife in her hand.

Nova looked at both Yuri and Haruna and said, "Yuri, is that woman over there in the sports bra your sister?"

"I'm her mother, Commander Wildstar," said Dr. Tsukikage.

"You two look _alike_!" Nova said with wonder in her voice.

"Dr. Tsukikage wears less to bed," said Tarou.

"Shut up," hissed Nova as she shoved the blaster muzzle in his ear. "I wear even less because I sleep with my husband, and I am a woman of impeccable morals!" Nova snapped.

"You're a crazy-looking woman who has a gun in my ear," moaned Tarou.

Yuri laughed. "Mom, isn't this funny?"

"Yes it is, Tarou. You creeper," said Mrs. Tsukikage. "And you never even had the courtesy to ask me out."

"I'd love to, if crazy woman over here would get her blaster out of my ear," whined Tarou.

"Should I strip him and tie him to a chair while we go out?" Nova said. "God, he's pathetic! Would you want your mother to go out with this wimp, Yuri?" Nova laughed.

"Foxy has far more masculinity than you do," said Katrina.

"And Derek….this man does not hold a candle to my Commodore," said Nova. She slapped Tarou's cheek. "Stop trying to turn around and look at my breasts, creeper!"

"aaaaaaaaaa," moaned Tarou.

Nova then got a random jump rope of Yuri's, and she tied Tarou to a chair after she slapped him in the head. "You creeper," she hissed. Then, she turned on Yuri. "Why do you let something like this stay over here with you?"

"And vhy you and mother still live together?" snapped Katrina. "She is respected, but you are a bit old to be living with your mother," she said.

Yuri sighed. "The answers to those questions are tied together. Protection."

"Protection?" Nova said.

"Yuri and I have made a lot of enemies in our detective work. We lived apart for a while, of course, but then one of our mutual enemies came and found out where I was staying," said Haruna. "He showed up there and nearly killed me, because I can fight, but not as well as Yuri. That is why we have lived together ever since. We care for each other. And, Tarou, as strange as he is at times, helps us around the house. He seems to have an admiration for me, as puerile as it is. And there are strange people and stranger things that now and then haunt SS Headquarters. Which is why I will not come there. Yuri, take Tarou home, open a window in his apartment, and dress him. Call in sick for him. He obviously cannot go to work today. Commander Wildstar here has terrified him. Please return soon with the slides and samples."

"He deserved it," Nova huffed. "But, Doctor Tsukikage. Will you be all right? I'll be back soon with the slides. Of course, I will be taking some to the _Argo_ with us. Will you be okay?"

"I will be safe for a few hours until Yuri comes home from her mission with you and Katrina and then she takes me to work." Yuri hugged her mother and said, "Be safe, dearest mother."

"You be safe, Yuri," said Haruna as they embraced.

* * *

Yuri dressed in a combat uniform similar to the sort Nova and Katrina had on. Then, she helped Nova out of her t-shirt; she would leave it there until they returned later on…hopefully, alive.

They then drove in Nova's yellow Fiat in the dim morning, arriving at 2500 Shinjuku Road-where SS Headquarters was-a while later.

Nova jumped out of the Fiat first, clad in her dark coveralls, boots, leggings, and carrying a large coil of rope. Yuri was dressed in a similar fashion.

Katrina got out and ran up beside Nova and asked, "How are we getting in there? There is a wall around the building!"

"We're going to rappell in," said Nova as Yuri worked with a coil of rope she had brought.

"What is that?" said Katrina.

"You don't know?" whispered Yuri, "It is simple. Hook this connector stanchion to your belt, and make sure this one hooks to the rope…..like this," she said as she fed some rope through her D-link on the connector stanchion, and she helped Katrina do the same. Nova, who would go in first, was the last one to hook up. She tied a grappling hook to the end of the rope, spun it around her head, and she threw it up into a tree that towered over the wall on a lot across the street. Nova made sure it was tight, and she went to the end of the rope and twirled another similar hook, throwing it over the wall into a lower tree near SS Headquarters. Then, Nova ordered, "There are climbing rungs in that tall tree. They use it for training exercises like this. Katrina, you climb the tree first."

"What?" Katriia said. "I…"

"It's logical," Yuri said. "You go up first, and you will be the last to drop fast onto the grounds. I will be the middle one after I make sure I cinch the rope tight, and when I do, Nova will be hauled up on the rope, and she'll go up hand over hand into the tree with us, and throw herself down first."

"Throw…herself…down?" gasped Katrina.

Nova nodded. "You slide down the rope and use the D-Ring to brake every now and then. That's what rappelling is. You sometimes have to use it to drop into buildings or landing zones. Derek made me make sure I am very good at it."

Katrina looked up at the tree, and groaned to herself. _I am a pilot! But how do I tell them I am afraid of heights when not in a plane? How do I get out of this? Or can I?_

Katrina gritted her teeth, and she began to climb up the rungs.

When she reached the top of the rungs, she saw there was a small platform up there. Yuri climbed up next, and she began to cinch the rope tight in a special fitting she attached to it. As the rope came up, Katrina saw Nova pulled up by the rope's tension. Nova ended up dangling ten meters above the ground, throwing her arms and legs around the rope. She began climbing up and backwards, getting herself up and back to the platform with some effort. She was sweating when she met the other women.

"These are the plans," Nova said as she handed the other two women two pieces of paper. "You enter the building at the north entrance, get past the security, and go down an emergency drop chute two levels. Katrina, cut the rope when you hit the ground. Use your combat knife. Then, you penetrate down to "A" deck, to the labs. We bust in here. They'll have the slides in a safe that we'll use a mini-charge on…just on the lock. Then, we'll get the slides and preserved samples, and out we go. Got that? We slide down the rope, and we'll meet up inside. Good luck."

Nova then just nodded, and she threw herself down the rope. Katrina saw her sliding down fast, catching up and slowing down near the end, at the other side of the wall. Katrina saw Nova hitting the dirt, rolling to avoid laser bursts from an automated turret, and then firing at the turret as she ran.

"I'm next," said Yuri. "Follow me thirty seconds later. We'll meet inside." Yuri gave Katrina a pat on the back, and she threw herself down the rope, her violet-colored hair flying as she slid down the rope. Katrrna saw her hit the dirt running, following Nova's trail into the building as she saw her dodging two men who tried to catch her. They were shot dead a moment later.

_Well, here goes…no time to be afraid…_ said Katrina to herself as she prayed to Arishna, and flung herself down the rope.

As Katrina slid down the rope, she was terrified. She hit the brake lever when just two meters above the ground. The stanchion slowed her with a heavy jerk, and she gingerly let her booted toes tap the earth. Then, she set down and let go.

She cut the rope, and screamed as a large man in a black trenchcoat and weird wide-brimmed hat fired bullets at her. She screamed a curse in Cometine, and fired right into the man's chest. Her laser weapon killed the man.

Another one of the strange men (whom, she would discover, were odd alien agents known as "Low Men") fired at her, and Katrina shot at the freak. Then, a hand grabbed her and pulled her inside the building.

Katrina was ready to fire…until she saw that Nova was the owner of the hand. "Good job," Nova hissed in a whisper. "Are you afraid of heights?"

Katrina nodded. "I am sorry…so…"

"Don't worry, Derek is afraid of heights too. I help him when do do this training together. C'mon."

Katrina nodded, and they ran into the building together.

* * *

A few minutes later, as they continued to advance into the building, past the automated guard posts, regular guards, and strange "Low Men", Nova, Yuri, and Katrina were rapidly discovering that much of SS Headquarters was underground…after they went down the drop chute slide, of course.

The slide scared Katrina, but she was able to manage it.

Inside the lower levels, the corridors looked more like those on a spacecraft or space station than in any Earth building. They were metal-lined and looked decidedly sinister.

Nova led point on the operation. When she ran into a junction, an ugly silver robot ran up in front of her.

"Halt, intruder, or you will be terminated!" said the robot as it locked its hip guns on Nova.

Nova held up her assault pistol and said, "No, you twelfth-class! _You_ halt or _I'll_ take _you _out!"

"You stupid human, you should know that you can never win an argument with a robot!" said the IQ-12 Assault Robot as he confronted Nova.

"What about the Laws of Robotics?" Nova countered.

"They do not apply to me. I am trained and programmed to kill. Stand back or I will make sure you no longer function, female human!"

Nova just began shooting as Katrina yelled "NO!"

Nova got the Twelve right in his logic center, and he fell over as a smoking scrap pile a moment later.

"Who says I never win arguments with robots?" Nova said cheerfully as she kicked the remains of the IQ-12 with her boot. "Good thing you didn't try to feel my butt."

"Are ve almost there?" whispered Katrina.

"Close," said Yuri as she looked at the plans.

Good. Zis place is madhouse…"

"_Get back_!" Yuri screamed as laser bolts whizzed down the hall.

Three EDF troopers and one of the strange men were firing at them. Nova, Katrina, and Yuri got into hiding near a corner and began to fire at them.

A moment later, one of the Low Men came right at Nova. It hissed at her, "Surrender, or die, you bitch!" in a strange, deep, dragging voice.

Nova snarled "_Yaaaaaaaahhhhh!_" and she ran for it with her teeth gritted as it grabbed her weapon. Forced to fight hand-to-hand, Nova kicked at the enemy and started punching, becoming a blur as she smashed a fist into its midsection and then kicked it in the crotch.

The creature recoiled but still tried to grab for her blaster. Nova jumped to the deck, caught it, and fired, blowing the Low Man's head off.

Katrina looked in in shock as she and Yuri dispatched the EDF troopers. "Remind me never to bother you if you have bad day," said Katrina.

Nova chuckled. "Very funny, Katrina! This is the room. Let's get in there and get the goods, and get out before reinforcements show up."

Yuri nodded and barked, "Right! Katrina! RUN!"

Yuri gave Katrina a shove, and she began firing down the hall to cover Nova and Katrina as two more robots showed up.

Nova, Katrina, and Yuri got into the room when Yuri had dispatched the robots.

Nova placed a small charge on the safe with a magnet and then said, "Step back!" She set off the tiny charge with a pocket detonator switch. There was a loud pop, and the dial fell off the safe, the place where the lock had been was a smoking hole.

Nova reached into the hole with a pair of pliers from her pocket, pulled the locking pin back, and she had the safe open. She found the slides and samples wrapped up in plastic. She took some and she gave some to Yuri. She also gave some to Katrina and said, "This is in case neither of us gets out; you have a set."

"I…" said Katrina.

"I told Derek how much I loved him before I left," Nova said as a tear ran down her cheek.

"The same with my mother," said Yuri. "Nova, let's run…"

"One last thing," Nova said after looking at the plans. She pivoted and fired several bursts through a computer. "They put all the surveillance camera output into drives in that unit," Nova explained. "Now, they have no visual record who we are. Let's go…"

"Not so fast," said an ironic voice as its owner strode into the room.

"What?" Nova said.

The owner of the voice was a man with worn boot-heels, a pair of jeans, and a denim jacket. One of the small buttons on his lapels was a smile button. The other one was a button with a dead policeman/pig on it that read "HOW'S YOUR PORK?"

"I am the Boss of the Low Men," said the man with his darkly handsome face as he laughed. Katrina and Yuri stood paralyzed, shocked by the appearance of this strange man. _Is this Ekogaru?_ Katrina thought.

"You…you.." Nova said. "I read about you in horror novels….by Stephen King…but….but…you're REAL!" Nova gasped.

"_She gave me coffee…she gave me tea_," said the Dark Man as he approached, singing. "_She gave me damn near everything but the workhouse key…._"

"Faraday, who's running the show here?" Nova screeched.

"Wrong, dear. You don't get the Kewpie Doll or the ten thousand dollars," said the Dark Man as he approached Nova. "Just like the old novel you're reading about Boulder, Colorado and the plague and the black woman over a hundred years old, dear. The name is Flagg, with the _double_ G. And I intend to crucify you before the sun comes all the way up, bitch…I was waiting for you," he said as he smiled his dark smile at Nova as he grabbed her and began to viciously cut her uniform open with a knife from the neck down as she felt strangely paralyzed as he intended to personally strip her naked before he gave her to his Low Men to have her nailed to a cross. "The Dark Lord and I have an understanding, Katrina, dear, and he said I could take this woman and crucify her…before she becomes too….YAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHH!" yelled Flagg as something hit him in the face.

Trying to hold her breasts into her torn jumpsuit, Nova saw her chance and kicked Flagg in the crotch as Yuri threw down the fire extinguisher she had just shot into the Walkin' Dude's face.

A moment later, as sirens began to blow, they felt themselves doing something….

…that felt like a 'jump'.

They were out on the street a moment later, looking right at Aliscea Rosstowski, who had appeared out of nowhere in front of them on the sidewalk.

"I just got you out of there, girls," snapped Aliscea. "Phased you out, to be exact. Nova, get your stupid Keystone Cops to your car and go! Get to the _Argo_! I'll hold back Mister Randy Flagg! He damn near ate you for lunch! And you can't stay here long!"

"Why?" Nova said.

"BECAUSE EKOGARU IS RIGHT ON HIS HEELS, STUPID!" Aliscea yelled as she slapped Nova across the face. "And for God's sake, get that t-shirt of yours right over you when you get home to Yuri's! In case you have not noticed, the whole world can now see your tits!"

Nova looked down at herself and blushed. "I…I…thank you, Aliscea!"

"Don't mention it, kiddo," said Aliscea as she then kissed Nova and took off.

"Uh…shall we drive to your place?" Nova said, blushing as she tried to get her jumpsuit to cover her bare breasts…and was only partly successful…..

Yuri nodded. "Step on it, before they find this car!"

"Right," Nova said.

They tore off.

* * *

At Yuri's place, luckily, Tarou was not around as Nova covered her exposed breasts by putting on her t-shirt. After she did so, Katrina said, "Yuri; Dr. Tsukikage…you two are going to be pursued by those men soon."

"I realized that," said Yuri. "What would you propose?"

"Kazuo and I own a small private space vessel. There would be room for you two there. I recommend that you two take leave from your jobs for a time and flee the Earth with us on a trip."

"Where are we going?" asked Haruna.

Nova said, "The _Argo_ is leaving on a secret mission to investigate the sun. She will then be returning to Earth four days later so that we can meet up with a diplomatic party from Iscandar that we will be escorting back there when we leave together six days later on the twenty-third. We should make port on Iscandar by the twenty-sixth. Since our vessel, and the ship we are escorting, are faster than Kazuo's ship, leaving Earth today wil give you a head start. We also have evidence that Zoltar may have fled in that general direction. You can justify your trip as a departure to pursue him."

"That is a great idea, Nova," said Yuri. "My mother and I will speak to our supervisor on the phone, and we shall depart today with Kazuo and Katrina."

"Good," Nova said with a smile. "Pack plenty of summer clothing and swimwear. Iscandar is even hotter and stickier than Earth this time of year," Nova said as she hugged Yuri, Haruna, and Katrina farewell. Yuri began making phone calls, and half an hour later, they left together, with Nova driving the Fiat to drop the three women off at Foxwoth Manor after they made their phone calls and packed. Then, Nova bade them farewell and headed for the space docks where the _Argo _was preparing for liftoff.

* * *

In SS Headquarters, chaos reigned, as Flagg had been attacked by Aliscea. He was now stumbling around half-blind when Major Maples showed up and struck him across the face.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Ekogaru roared.

"They gave us resistance, unexpected, M'Lord, and they escaped us with Aliscea's aid. Aliscea then attacked me, and…"

"You are nothing less than pathetic, Flagg. And you told me you had great, _great _powers," Ekogaru whispered. "For the sake of your Master Below, you have another chance. Gather up the Low Men and get them down to Level Six. I have something a bit more important to concern myself with now."

"And that is?"

Ekogaru smiled. "General Stone is on his way here. It is about time I dealt with him and finally _openly_ drew him into My Service; he's been close to serving me all along, anyhow…even though I do foresee he will suffer a great fall in the next few years…but still be a useful ally to us when my new Fortress is ready and the day comes at last when we can begin the Great Invasion!" the Dark Lord hissed. "That is why you are to gather up the Low Men and other creatures I have been bringing here. We are to give Stone a show and pray to the Powers Below that we impress him so that he does not report this to his forces…and so that we do not have some space cruisers and battleships bombarding this place into ashes and powder," said Ekogaru.

"Yessir," said Flagg with a lopsided grin.

Ekogaru then smiled to himself and he walked about, waiting for General Stone's arrival at sunrise.

He thought of giving orders to have the _Argo's_ launch stopped…so that his forces could then raid the _Argo_, arrest the crew, and have them dragged here for a proper execution, but the Dark Lord guessed he would be overplaying his hand if orders to stop a Commodore came from a Major. He thought, _I could possibly have Stone give those orders…but…no….that time is past. It will take me a while to terrify Stone into my service…unless I have to just kill him…or possess him. Even then, if I got to EDF Headquarters in his body, it would take some time for me to come up with a convincing tale to fool General Singleton into stopping the Star Force. It appears that Wildstar and his allies have won this round…_

…_or, have they?_ Ekogaru thought. _Zoltar, you might be a useful ally, after all. An unwitting one, to be sure…let us see if I can contact your "Luminous One" who is, of course a Ghost in a Machine who has taken over that computer and has become one of the Principalities that serves the Heirarchy Below. Perhaps, in My Service…._

* * *

**III. TAKING OFF**

**Earth**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**August 16, 2208**

**About 1035 Hours**

* * *

The scattered crew members had arrived on time aboard the _Argo_, person by person.

By 0930, Admiral Wildstar was pleased when he had a full crew complement on Bridge Number One. Lieutenant Harper was at the helm; Commander Paul Rosstowski was at Combat, Sasha was at Analysis, Nova (still in black with her black Special Forces t-shirt on over her torn jumpsuit) was at the Cosmo-Radar, a Lieutenant Kaufman was at Artillery, and Stephen Sandor, Eager, and Homer were at their usual places, with Diane Sandor at Engineering.

"You're sure we have launch clearance?" Nova said as the _Argo_ cruised up through the troposphere to the edge of space.

"Homer secured us clearance half an hour ago, Commander," Derek said from his post.

"Then, would someone tell me why I have _five_ battle satellites lining up before us at 0.523 megameters ahead?" Nova said as she checked the radar again and again. "It's confirmed."

"And I'm reading that they're on charge sequence," said Stephen Sandor from his post.

"And I can't reach Headquarters for an explanation," said Homer. "Something is jamming us!"

"Commander, you told me about a battle you had in SS Headquarters this morning," said Derek as he came over to Nova. "Do you think that this is some kind of weird Black Ops thing going on?"

"If it is, it's highly irregular," Nova said. "When we took off against orders to fight the Comet Empire years ago, didn't General Stone try something like this? I'm afraid I didn't see it all because I was with Doctor Sane setting up Sickbay at the time."

"He did, Nova,' said Sandor as the other older veterans on the Bridge also nodded. "Commodore Wildstar, we can hit them now if we fire a quick barrage…"

"I'm not so sure we should…." Derek began.

"Fire detected from Battle Satellite Number One!" Nova barked. "I calculate six seconds to impact!"

"Mister Harper!" Derek barked.

"Don't need to tell me twice," said Harper as he worked the controls, and the _Argo_ evaded the energy blast.

"Ooooooeeee, looks like they got one o' those big ones up and runnin'," said Eager.

Derek gave orders for Rosstowski and Kaufman to take out the battle satellite.

The _Argo's _guns promptly went off, finishing off Battle Satellite Number One.

* * *

On Earth, in SS Headquarters, Major Maples looked at Stone and said, "There goes our best clear shot to deal with the cursed Star Force quietly. Satellite Number One destroyed? Pull the others back before Singleton and the Council detect too much."

"I'll do that," said Stone, who punched some controls at Secondary Control in SS Headquarters. "Keep the jamming screen up?"

"Pull it back," sighed Maples. Stone did so. "I'm sending a message to the Commander that Battle Satellite Number One fired at the _Argo_ due to a misfire. That should suffice?"

Maples nodded. Then, Stone turned on him and said, "Aside from Commander Nova Wildstar's…apparent involvement in a Black Counter-Op this morning that I dare not tell Singleton about, lest he know how far we have gone with our _own _Black Ops in dealing with her and secreting evidence in this Ibn Zoltar terror business, why did you ask me to come here and attack the _Argo_? They are actually taking off under orders this time. We are overplaying our hand! People will get…suspicious!"

"There is a logical explanation for everything, General Stone," said Maples with a smile. "And you are about to discover it."

"We can go over this _later_," Stone huffed. "I am overdue at Headquarters."

"No, we can and will go over this now," grinned Maples as he turned from the screen to Stone.

"What _is_ this?" said Stone. "I _outrank_ you, Miister!" General Stone snapped. "And you are ordered to let me depart! Let me go, or you will be up on charges, Major!"

Suddenly, four Low Men in their trenchcoats surrounded Stone. Maples smiled at them. "Stone, my friend," said Maples. "Here, you are about to find out who outranks whom, _General._ Men, make sure Stone follows us, and does not give us too much of a fight. Stone, you are coming with me…down to Level Six."

"There is _no_ Level Six in here!" Stone snapped.

"There is, and you are about to see it," said Maples, whose voice began to go strangely deep. "Follow us, Stone," he said as he looked into General Stone's eyes.

* * *

Foxy and Katrina's yacht had already performed its first space warp by 1100 Hours.

Their yacht was known as the _Lady Katrina_, and she was a smallish yacht of the Pellian _T'Ranga_ class, rated by the Earth Federation as a Runabout. She was a craft originally manufactured by the Pellian Federation. She was bigger than Nathanial Hardy's Skipjack, though, being 36 meters from bow to stern. Highly automated, it required only a pilot and a co-pilot and it could transport eight passengers with 25 metric tons of cargo, for a maximum complement of ten adults aboard this ship. The ship was equipped with deflectir fields, and a pair of small wave motion engines, both highly automated. While the stock yacht was without weapon systems, many _T'Rangas_ were upgraded to include defensive measures.

The _Lady Katrina_ had such defensive measures, having a small pulse laser turret on its upper portion, a few small missile tubes, and in its launch bay, one and only one Pellian warp fighter ship, that could also serve as a shuttle or landing craft.

The lower deck of the yacht held the sublight engine bay and cargo storage. The upper deck contained passenger cabins, a small luxury galley and dining facility, a whirlpool bath and the cockpit.

At the moment, the vessel had warped from the vicinity of the Moon to the Keyatha System, which was about one hundred and eighty lightyears away from Earth. The Keyatha System held five planets, one of them being a habitable water world known as Derlin that had one small continent on which there was a rather small civilization.

"Are we stopping there at Derlin?" asked Yuri as she came up into the cockpit. She still had on her glasses, but she had changed her clothes after taking a shower; she was now dressed in purple jeans, a slightly cropped top, and dark red sandals.

"Naaaaaah, I don't see any reason why we need to stop there," said Kazuo "Foxy" Foxworth-Savela. He had on a pair of brown chino pants, house slippers, and a white shirt with navy blue pinstripes on it. Yuri thought he looked rather..odd… "Nothing there but traders, water, tuna, and fishmongers. Katrina and I stopped there once a few months back. One visit to the place is enough."

"You are sure ve do not need supplies?" snapped Katrina. She had changed into a white blouse, dark slacks, and sandals. It seemed apparent to Yuri that she was running the ship, but she had some questions. "It's been a while since you have been in hand-to-hand combat, Mrs. Savela. It obviously showed down there."

"It was some years since I had hand-to-hand training," Katrina said. "I am very rusty at it, and need more work."

"You looked frightened," said Yuri. "Did you have a bad experience in battle in the past?"

Katrina remembered her horrid experiences on the first Comet, and then her experiences in battle with Ekogaru and Gorse on the second Comet, and she said, "Let us just say I did! YES! And then drop it! Are we clear?"

Yuri nodded, thinking, _This must really affect her if she is like this over it._

"Who's doing your usual inspection of the Hardy residence this month?" asked Foxy.

"Your rental agent, Mitchell Abramson," replied Katrina. "I asked him to do it. He is a tough bastard and will be rough on that stupid Dawn if he finds one thing out of place!" Katrina said. "And Dawn gave me the backtalk the last time I vas there! I want him to give her a very hard time and I want her to suffer for what she did to me!"

"Who's Dawn?" asked Haruna Tsukikage as she came out. She had on a sweater, skirt, and thong sandals.

"Dawn Hardy, wife of Jefferson Hardy of the _Argo_," said Katrina. "She is crazy woman and horrid mother. I do not like her much. She hurt me a while back, and as compensation, I took title to a house she and her husband were about to purchase, and I make zem pay me _rent_!" she laughed. "I also inspect house regularly and fine them if things are out of place. Nova let slip to me in a conversation that they atre trying to worm their way out of the rental contract by buying _their_ house in San Diego. The Wildstars can sell the place to stupid woman if they want, but if stupid woman thinks she is sneaking out of paying me rent, I will CRUSH her!" yelled Katrina.

"Easy, Katrina," said Foxy. "Your blood pressure!"

"Why can't you just let them pay and go and let bygones be bygones?" said Haruna.

"Because they dishonored me, and for that, they will pay!" yelled Katrina. "First Mate Raful, what do _you_ want?"

First Mate Albert Raful, a dark-bearded man, and one of the men that helped Foxy run his ship, showed up and popped something like a salute while he said, "Hey Boss, ya want me and Schmitty to take watch yet?" in a growling, gruff voice.

Yuri noticed (with some amusement) that Raful had on a light blue pullover shirt with an odd emblem on one breast; a letter "F" with a stylized, grinning cartoon fox behind it, and that he wore a bandanna in his messy hair and looked a bit like some deranged pirate. _F for Foxy, I guess,_ thought Yuri. _What a weird bunch he hires._ _Hope these guys are competent spacers._

Foxy yawned and said, "You and Schmitty can take over at fifteen hundred. Then put the ship on auto-pilot until the four of us, you guys, Jacqui, and the maid all eat together at nineteen hundred. Then you guys are relieved and Jacqui has the night watch with the auto-pilot and the maid. Katrina and I will take the morning watch ourselves."

"Aye, aye, skipper," said Raful.

"Your crew?" said Haruna.

Foxy nodded. "I have one crew for my sea-going yacht; this bunch runs my space yacht. I pay them well, and if all of them had to go to battle stations, they'd fight like hell to protect the ship."

"I see," said Yuri. "Katrina, what is your battle station?"

"I fly the fighter, of course," said Katrina.

"What else do you do aboard this ship?" asked Haruna.

"Sometimes I help Foxy fly it, but mostly…."

She put her arms around Foxy and grinned.

"Ah! You're the Captain's Wench!" laughed Yuri.

"When are you two going to be at it?" teased Yuri.

"When all of you are _asleep_!" yelled Katrina as she blushed while Foxy kissed her…

* * *

**IV. A REVELATION**

**Earth**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**August 16, 2208**

**1119 Hours**

* * *

General Stone found himself forced into a metal elevator car, closed with an old-fashioned metal gate.

Six Low Men held Stone as Maples smiled at him while they descended down into the Earth some distance, about two hundred meters.

When they emerged, Stone found himself in a very old, long-abandoned part of the underground city beneath Tokyo. One of the upper levels, this level was filled with mutant weeds and trees, and an old smell of corruption and death, having been abandoned even during the Gamilon War itself as the radiation had seeped deeper and deeper into the Earth.

Stone tripped over a skeleton as he was frog-marched into a dark room inside some old headquarters building. There, he was thrown to his knees before an empty black throne (illuminated from above with a single spotlight) as Maples struck him in the face and said, "In case you were wondering, Stone, I am, and I also am NOT, Gary Maples!"

"Well, then, who the fuck are you?" ranted Stone. "I tell you, Maples, you're insane! You will be up on charges for this…you…"

Maples came before him, smiled, and his face began to melt as his ascot came undone. His short dark hair turned long and blond and it began to blow in the breeze, and the image of something like a skeleton was superimposed over him—or, was it coming out of him?

When Maples opened his mouth again, a chilling, cold, deep voice came out of his chest and said, to Stone, "I am very, _very_ old, you rotten piece of crap, Stone! I am the Lord Ekogaru, your new GOD! I was born in Ancient Egypt on Earth of a Terran Mother, and a Rikashan Nephilim Father with an Iscandarian forebear who raped her. My mother birthed me naked in the desert in blood and pain and fed me her milk and her own blood! I was filled from a young age with the darkest spirits of Egypt, and I learned sorcery in the night before I was even clothed or my child's forelock was cut off! He Named Nyalothep or Asmodeus came to me in my childhood from Outside and granted me great power if only I would bow down and worship him, which I did!"

Stone trembled as the skull-face of Ekogaru appeared and the room went black, filled with stars and a strange negative image.

"I am old and strong! I was a sorceror and Prince of Egypt in my youth, and We saw that idiot that the Great Dictator used to free the Israelites from Pharaoah's Bondage! I met the Lord of Below before I was forty and I was sent to Iscandar to learn their arts in disguise, and then, I passed on to Rikasha and became an engineer, Lord of that People, and Chancellor! Then, the Cursed Queen defeated me and cast me out, but only after I destroyed the people of Rikasha in the first Holocaust."

Ekogaru laughed and continued to rant, saying, "I was cast to the Blackeye Galaxy and bound there in flesh, but my spirit was able to walk! I met the five thousand demons of Legion in Judea and it was I who sent Legion into the madman to test the rotten Son of the Great Dictator. I laughed as Legion ended up in a bunch of swine, but I stood back from attacking the Prince, so-called, because the Lord of Below said He was his property to deal with! Legion later came back to my side! Legion and I are old friends, and we are both allies of the Master Below. I had a good laugh, though, when they executed the Prince. I have been inside and outside of your history! I was on Earth and lived inside Grigori Rasputin! I walked the highways and byways of your world and I was inside a madman named Charlie Manson once upon a time! Oh, yes, Stone, I am a very old man. Not nice. But old as HELL!"

"You're a fucking devil," whispered Stone as he held up a crucifix on a chain that he carried in one of his pockets. "Now, I know you've infiltrated the…"

"Get that accursed thing OUT of my FACE!" roared Ekogaru through Maples as he slapped the crucifix out of his hand.

As Flagg appeared in the room, watching and grinning, Ekogaru raised his hand and threw Stone against the wall with a psychic blast of force. Ekogaru held Stone there and slapped his face.

"I'm sworn to defend Earth," gasped Stone. "You must be mad if you do not think I am sending word to Commanding General Singleton, the President of Earth, and even that damn long-haired rebel Wildstar that you're lurking here inside Maples and his SS so that we can execute you! It must have been your idea to frame Nova Wildstar, right? That poor woman! Even though I am convinced she is my…."

"Wrong, it was Zoltar's," said Ekogaru as he slapped Stone again. "But I was able to make use of it, right, King of Nowhere?" he said to Flagg.

"Yes, Lord," Flagg said with a nod.

"And the kid _is_ your bastard daughter," said Ekogaru with a laugh. "Let nothing convince you otherwise, for I am old and have access to secret, arcane knowledge. Now, it remains. What the Hell do I do with _you?_ I have had Piper Sandberg in my pocket for ages; he runs the show for me on R'Khelleva with Marda. Have you ever wanted power?"

"Power?" whispered Stone as Ekogaru, in Maples, stroked his face.

"Wealth. Power," whispered Ekogaru as he let Stone slide down the wall onto the floor in a heap. "Might I offer you a kingdom, Stone? Not just a command. But, a Kingdom."

"Where will this…Kingdom…be?" whispered Stone.

"Earth," said Ekogaru. "There will come a day when I will take over Maples' body and then I shall kill him and refit this body so that I can and will live forever in it. And I will invade Earth again in force, with stronger forces. I will set you in my ranks as one of those who will prepare the way for My Return in force, with a new Grand Fortress, along with Legion here," he said as he pointed at Flagg. "I will give YOU the Chancellorship of Earth. You will be its ruler, under My Guidance. And you will crush all those who have opposed you."

"What do I have to do to accept this?" Stone gasped.

"Bow down, worship Me, and kiss my feet," hissed Ekogaru. "Then, let me have my way with you…"

Stone got up, walked over to Maples, and kissed his boots. Then, he bowed before the Dark Lord, on his knees, in a gesture of worship as he renounced God and all he held dear to worship…HIM.

"My lord, you are my God," whispered Stone. "Do you accept my worship?"

Ekogaru smiled. "Get up," he said. Then, he began to tear Stone's uniform off his body, bit by bit, until he was left naked before him. Ekogaru, now in full control of Maples, lowered the Major's trousers, and he came towards Stone with a huge member, erect, swollen, grotesque. "Kiss me!" he ordered as he slapped Stone across the face.

Stone kissed Ekogaru on the lips. "No, IDIOT! DOWN THERE! I OWN YOU!" roared the Dark Lord as he punched Stone in the gut. "And you tell NO one of this! Understood?"

Stone nodded, and then he moaned as he coughed up blood. Then, he took the Dark One's manhood in his hand, and as Flagg laughed, he kissed it and took the Accursed One in his mouth as he pleasured him. Then, Ekogaru pulled back, slapped him again, and then, with no preparation, he took Stone from behind in rage.

Stone screamed, crying as the Dark Lord raped him, making him into his "woman" as Flagg spat in his face and grabbed some of his moustache and tore it away.

"You want him next, Randall?" said Ekogaru over the sound of Stone's moans and whimpers.

"_Your_ bitch?" said Flagg with disdain. "No. You claimed this thing, you have it, Lordship," said Flagg with a smile. "I like women better. Even though he sounds like a weak, nasty, filthy, whining whore of a woman when he takes you inside him. Oh, Stone? Nova Wildstar takes her husband up there with a hell of a lot more honor and strength than YOU do. I've been with them out of doors, watching them as the Crow. You make a _horrible _woman, Stone. Have fun!"

And Stone screamed as he bled and the Dark Lord climaxed into him.

Ekogaru was cold.

He was Death.

* * *

**V. OBSERVATIONS AND A SPIDER'S WEB**

**The Inner Solar System**

**The Vicinity of Planet Mercury**

**August 17, 2208**

**1442 Hours**

* * *

The _Argo_ had just warped to the vicinity of Mercury.

She stopped there, behind the little planet, taking readings of the angry Sun, which looked hellish and terrifying at this distance.

Stephen Sandor was on Bridge Number Two, examining scans being taken by his scientific crew. One of them looked at him and said, "Sir, we have this scan completed."

"Yes?" Sandor said.

"Sir, the diameter of the sun has increased slightly. Beforehand, it was about 1.4 million kilometers. It is now 1.6 million kilometers around. A noticeable increase, sir. And the temperature has also increased. It has increased from 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the photosphere to close to 13,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The mass, turbulence, and size of solar prominences have also increased. All told, the increase in solar activity has been about nine percent, plus or minus two percent," said the young Ensign.

Sandor began looking at numbers. "The geometric increase has taken a few months. How long has the Sun remained like this, Ensign Nishimura?"

"It looks like it has been at plateau for about six or seven days, sir," Ishimura said. She was female, young, and rather attractive in her blue and white uniform. Naturally, Sandor did not have that much notice for Keiko Ishimura, since he and Diane were now openly rooming together aboard the _Argo_ for the first time ever, now being married.

"How long might it take to begin the downward curve to normal again?" said Sandor.

"Hard to say," said Ishimura. "It seems to be constant, at least, sir. At least we know that the stats are no longer…going…up…"

Sandor nodded. "Yes. But it's going to be hard to say when, or if, they will go down again. Try to get what you can, Keiko."

"Yessir," she said as she saluted.

* * *

An hour later, the crew of the _Argo_ was gathered in the Central Strategy Room, listening intently as Commander Stephen Sandor stood at the head of the large semicircle of officers and crewpersons as he said, "These are the results of our latest scans. The Sun is not getting worse, but it is not getting better."

"How long might it remain like this?" Nova asked.

"Nova, that's something that we do not yet know. We did a probe of the Sun's core with some automated robot satellites we launched into the Sun itself. Before they stopped transmitting, we did pick up what seems to be a slight drop from deep in the Sun's core. It will probably return to normal at some point, but…"

"You're not sure when," interrupted Commodore Derek Wildstar. "That's it, right?"

"Yessir, that appears to be the case," said Sandor.

"Well, at least we know it won't get any _worse_," Nova said with a laugh.

Not far away, Jonathan Hartnell-Wildstar stood off to the side watvhing his father running the briefing in his Junior Space Cadet Corps uniform. He and some of his squadron were detached to the _Argo_ as shipboard Troopers for the next few days, and he was thrilled to observe his parents doing their part in an actual Star Force briefing. _This is so cool…_he thought.

Jefferson Hardy stood with his head down during the briefing. He plainly had something on his mind as Sandor took over again and continued to talk science and physics, soon reaching the point where some of those present were having a hard time keeping up with him, as sometimes happened with his brilliance.

Finally, after a few minutes, the group broke up.

Deke Wakefield walked over to Jefferson Hardy and asked, "What's going on?"

"Ah'm worried. About Dawn," said Jeff.

"Explain?" said Deke with a sigh.

"Well, Dawn and I were going to be movin' out of the place we were going to buy. Katrina Savela got pissed off by Dawn when she crashed that party in the Pellian Embassy, and Katrina punished us by gettin' title to what was to be **ooah** house and becomin' ouh landlady! And she's tough! She either inspects the place herself, or she sends someone to inspect it."

"So?" said Deke.

"She saw the agent for Katrina and her crazy hubby Foxy earlier today. When we last talked, she said she was apprehensive about the inspection…and I'm worried about her and David. The guy doing the inspection was named Samuelson. Dawn saw him once before. He was a _tough_ bastahd!"

"I'm so sorry to hear about this, Jeff," said Deke with a sigh. "I hope that you guys will be all right…"

"So do I," sighed Hardy.

Deke noticed that he looked very sad as he walked off.

* * *

"Okay," said Nova, who was checking off names as people went in to talk to their families. "This time, we have ten minutes. Hardy, you're next," said Nova in a gentle voice as she checked a name off on a list.

"Ah feel as nehvous as shit," said Jeff as he grabbed Nova's hand. "Ah told ya why…"

"Hiram Samuelson can't be _that_ bad," Nova said. "After all, _think_! It's in Katrina's interest to keep you there as tenants so you can pay as much rent to her as you can…right?"

"I don't know if Katrina is logical or not," said Hardy. "I think she's crazy."

"Would you like me to sit with you in there?" Nova said softly. "I sat with Jonathan before when he called his girlfriend Felicia and then his sister Michelle, who is back on Earth at Foxworth Manor while her parents are away from Earth on business. I can do the same with you."

Jefferson nodded.

"Okay, I'll come in," Nova replied. "Ensign Kenyatta, would you take over for me for a few minutes?" Nova said as she handed the clipboard to a young African-American woman who wore a gold and black uniform and boots like hers, except that Kenyatta's collar was white.

"Aye, ma'am," said Ensign Kisha Kenyatta as she took the clipboard and then saluted Nova.

Jeff and Nova walked into the comm booth together. Hardy punched in the numbers and codes to call his home.

When he got Dawn, she had on one of her nurse's uniforms, with no shoes, her hair in disarray, and a breast exposed as she nursed and rocked David, who had on nothing but a diaper. Dawn was crying, and she looked very angry.

"Dawn?" said Jeff. "What's wrong?"

"What's _wrong_?" yelled Dawn. "Jeff, Nova, what's wrong? _Everything!_" yelled Dawn. "We failed our inspection, and that Samuelson was so tough…no…he was _vicious_!"

"Dawn, all that means is that you have to pay them some more, right?" Nova said.

"NO, STUPID!" yelled Dawn. "Nova, Jeff, we have to move! In just fourteen days! If I am not out by September the first, Samuelson said he will have armed men in there on the fifteenth day to strip us of everything we own and to make us move by FORCE!"

"Katrina surely didn't approve of that, did she?" Nova sighed.

"No, she damn well DID!" screamed Dawn as David rejected her breast and began to cry. Dawn then pulled off her nurse's dress and stood there naked as she gave David her other breast as she yelled, "Samuelson had some kind of communicator and he CALLED Katrina on her ship and I HEARD that _bitch_ telling him "_throw zem OUT! I haf had enough! They have fourteen days_!""

Jeff stood in shock as Nova sighed and said, "Dawn, if I have the chance, I have to get in touch with Katrina and give her a _good_ talking to!"

"Nova, where will we go?" sobbed Dawn. "I have to work and take care of David by myself! I can't find a new place in just fourteen days, and Jeff, you know that we have just enough in the bank for food, utilities, the car payment, and next month's rent! I can't raise a security deposit on a new place in FOURTEEN DAYS!"

Dawn just cried as she cut the image. Hardy looked at Nova, stricken. She gave him a hug and said, "It'll work out…we'll all think of something…"

"Please do," Hardy said.

* * *

A day passed.

On Gamilon, as the Earth date August 18th began, per Tokyo Megalopolis Space-Time, Desslok was playing with Dellar on his bed while Astrena came in, clad in nothing but sandals as she walked in with a little whimpering bundle in her arms, accompanied by her nurse, Tamia, as Astrena held the bare, squiggling little form against her nude breast.

Dellar tapped his father and said, "Look! Mother is feeding Aisha this time out!"

"As she should be far more," said Tamia, the wet nurse of Desslok and Astrena's newest daughter, the Lady Aisha, who had been conceived in April of 2207, and born in early Ferbuary of 2208. The golden-haired Lady was now just a little over seven months old, and she had partially been cared for by Tamia. She, like wet nurses in the Pellian, Iscandarian, and even some of the Cometine traditions, went naked on duty except for a necklace and a towel sort of worn around the waist and going down one thigh; the lap of such a wet nurse was kept bare to provide a warm, comforting surface for the baby to crawl on or sit own. Astrena, both remembering tradition and how cute Nova had looked bare with her babies, also often went naked herself now when caring for or playing with Aisha.

"I fed _you_ a lot, Dellar, you little swine," teased Astrena as she kicked off her sandals as she lay back on the bed against Desslok, with Aisha on her stomach, kicking her legs as she fed. Aisha had light blond hair, and in only her skin, she was a very light cerulean blue shade all over, from the top of her head to the tips of her little, perfectly forned toes. For casual occassions like this, Tamia and Astrena preferred to keep her naked, lying or crawling on either easily changed absorbent pads or against their own skin. Then, she said to Desslok, "The Star Force will be coming here in a few days."

"I know," said Desslok, who was bare-chested and clad in only his pajama bottoms.

"They will have some substantial difficulty and be in trouble," said Astrena as she lay against Desslok. Desslok smiled at Aisha and played with her. The baby giggled at her father and tweaked his nose.

Luckily, the Leader of Gamilon was not in the habit of shooting babies. The worst that Desslok did was tickled the baby girl's little blue belly button, making her laugh.

Desslok rested the baby against his stomach, smiling as her legs and feet kicked.

Then, a small hissing sound came….

…as the Leader of Gamilon was weed on by his daughter.

"Father!" laughed Dellar. "She made water on you! How amusing!"

"You did the same at her age, son," said Desslok as he reached over and pushed a button while Astrena and Tamia began to fuss over Aisha. Desslok said into a speaker, "Tamal, bring towels and lotions, would you? For the baby and myself."

"Of course," said one of Desslok's male bath servants.

* * *

The evening, at General Stone's residemce, General Jackson Stone lay naked in bed with his dark-haired, long-neglected wife Chelsea as they lay in a rare lovemaking sesssion. He was on top of Chelsea's rather attractive nude form, thrusting passionately at her as she embraced him with her long legs.

"Oh, God…Oh God…oh…..GOD!" Chelsea cried as Stone kissed her, grunted, and went at her like a machine.

_There are many things I miss_, Chelsea thought sadly as she and Stone made love. _He never says "I Love You, Chelsea" anymore….not even during the act of love itself! He…sometimes hits me. He…has those mistresses of his….I met Mrs. Wildstar again the other day…she thinks I should leave him, and she was nauseated when I told her about my sex life, or lack thereof….and that Nova had a scarf on with her halter…trying to hide a little hickey Derek gave her…how cute. When we began comparing notes over lunch in her house about Jackson and Derek, Nova told me her husband is utterly faithful to her, very much attracted to her, and that he has the most beautiful body…and one of the most __gorgeous__-looking cocks she's ever seen on a man in her practiice….unlike Jackson's body…. (which we both know about; she had to examine him once-him and his BO…he nearly made Nova throw up, just like he's made me nearly throw up with his odor) and she also told me that she does not ever need to get a dirty girlie book to get a semen sample out of him for flight phyiscals….she just strips for him because he is so attracted to her…what a lucky woman…unlike..me…._

Chelsea shivered as Jack exploded in her. She had to hold him there so he would thrust a little longer before his member's gas ran out so that she could also have an orgasm.

Chelsea had one (the first with Jackson in over a year) and she rubbed his bottom as he lay gasping and grunting against her.

_No, "I Love You…."_ Chelsea thought sadly. _Nothing like Nova….with Derek…she confessed he likes to go on and make her feel good after intercourse…and that's how she got that hickey….the lucky, lucky girl….why am I still here with him? touching his butt….and feeling…._

"Jackson, did you just have an accident?" said Chelsea as she touched Stone's bare bottom.

"What?" he barked violently. "Chelsea, what the hell are you doing?"

"We just made love, stupid!" snapped Chelsea as Jackson slapped her across the face.

She screamed. "I thought you said you'd never do that to me again!" Then, she looked at her hand. "Blood? Your butt has been bleeding? What's _wrong_ with you?"

"NOTHING!" roared Stone, who knew very well why he was bleeding.

"Maybe you need to see the doctor…hemmorhoids…a colonoscopy…a…." Then, Chelsea's eyes narrowed, and she said, "Or maybe the girl mistresses like Jade and Teri aren't enough anymore? Are you going off with boys behind my back now, too?"

"SHUT UP!" roared Stone as he punched Chelsea in the mouth.

Bruised, and now bleeding, Chelsea recoiled from Stone, reaching for a robe so he would not see her naked. "Who _was_ it?" barked Chelsea.

"None of your business!" yelled Stone. "All right, I did have sex with a man! It was an initiation in a relationship that will greatly benefit both of us, for I have been promised the rule of Earth! The power promised me is incredible!"

"You rotten hypocrite wife-beating bastard!" yelled Chelsea. "Get the hell away from me, because I am leaving you! I have had enough of your _shit!_ Fourteen years of pain with you, Stone! Fourteen years of beatings, adultery, drunknness, and publicly destroying people who happen to be homosexual but are quiet about it, you false, so-called Baptist, and you are married to me and are bisexual without even having the decency to tell me?"

"And where are you fucking going?" hissed Stone.

"To the nearest reporter, to tell him about your hypocrisy and the living hell you have put me and so many others through so that you can be brought down as Chief of Staff and then I'm going to the police!" said Chelsea as she put a robe halfway on her naked body.

"NO YOU ARE NOT!" Jackson Stone roared as he grabbed her and hit her again.

She hit him back, screaming, "Get your fucking hands off me, you miserable queer!"

Jackson roared at Chelsea, took a kick in the balls, and another in the slight pot belly he now had, and he threw himself on top of Chelsea, tearing her open robe off her with one hand while the other one crushed down on her neck.

When he was finished stripping her naked again, he snarled at her, and his other hand went around her neck while she kicked and gasped as he strangled her.

She got him with a few more kicks as her eyes bugged out. Chelsea almost broke free of him once (and if she had, she would have gotten a knife and stabbed him in self-defense). Indeed, her last thoughts were _I need a knife, Goddamnit, let me go, I need a knife, that's it, one of us is gonna die, me or you and it's gonna be you, and….. _

Chelsea was in horrible pain as Stone crushed her larynx. She coughed up a good bit of blood, and unconsciousness mercifully came a moment later.

"Die, die, DIE, you fucking whore!" hissed Stone as he crushed down and kept on strangling the life out of Chelsea. He had a massive erection as he did so. And, he was smiling like a madman.

Finally, Chelsea's breathing began to grow ragged, and, sensing an opportunity, even while strangling her, Stone took her again, raping her like a madman literally as she took her last breaths.

Stone's orgasm was quick, hot, and intense. He pulled out and let his seed squirt all over her stomach as she writhed, kicked….

…and then went limp for the last time as her tormented heart stopped.

Chelsea Stone's body crashed onto the bed like a rock. Stone slapped her again as her bladder and bowels relaxed upon death, as Chelsea soaked the bed with her final waste.

General Stone grinned, looking at the bruised neck, protruding tongue, darkly reddened face, and polluted body of Chelsea Stone, whose spirit had already flown to a better place, and was, in fact, immediately kneeling clad in white in the innermost court of a Great City at the Grand Altar of Heaven before the Presence, crying directly before the Face of the Eternal Father and He Who sat at His Right Hand in unspeakable Light and Glory, "How LONG, Most High, before I am _avenged_?"

He at the Right Hand of Power stood and embraced Chelsea and said, "It will be years in their time, but not long at all in My Reckoning, Chelsea, my brave Witness. Truly, truly, I say unto you…you made a gallant attempt to rid the world of him, but your former husband's end is now far beyond you. My diamond in the rough will be the one to avenge you someday, when _she_ comes into her full inheritance, and deals personally with Stone, and his new Master…" As He spoke, one of His dearest friends, a former terrorist, assassin, killer, and thief, came before Him in response to a Summons and bowed deeply. He bowed in return, and said, "My dear friend Dismas. I promised you Paradise as we were dying together in agony centuries ago. Would you kindly show Chelsea the City when she and I are finished? I have something to show her…"

Then, Chelsea beheld Gary Maples showing up at her house _No, my former house,_ she thought as she saw the black cloud around Maples….and gasped when she saw the skull-like face under the skin. She was nauseated as she beheld Gary and Stone kissing like lovers.

"So that is where HE is?" Chelsea said. "Who will be destroying….destroying…THAT?"

The Great Architect of the Universe raised one of His scarred hands and He smiled as He said, "Behold she who will someday crush the Dark Lord with MY rod of iron!"

And Chelsea Stone's eyes went wide in the next life as she beheld the young one who had been Chosen…or cursed…to be the Fulcrum of History in this grand battle against Ekogaru and all he represented….then, she went off with Dismas, as, clad in white like she was, the Thief showed Chelsea Stone her new home….

* * *

"What's wrong, Stone?" said Maples in a low, pleasant voice as his eyes went vacant and the voice deepened as he said, "Do you have a little…mess…in your bedroom?"

"I just murdered my wife," Stone said in a shaky voice.

"Really?" purred Ekogaru as he pulled out his Crystal Sphere, and then completely took over Maples, to a degree he had never quite been able to accomplish with Stovall. Maples was a far more congenial Host for this dark spirit than Stovall had ever been. Stone was shocked to see Maples' dark hair going salt-and-pepper grey and to see a thick black moustache appearing on him that looked almost like that of the late Josef Stalin. "Over _what_?"

"She found out, Lord, what you did to me. She threatened to go to the press with it."

Ekogaru shook his head and went, "tsk, tsk, tsk, _tsk_…"

"Is that what you _really_ look like?" gasped Stone."It looks better than Maples…him and that crewcut…."

"It's what I used to look like and soon shall look like again in just a few short decades," said Ekogaru. "I know she's dead. I was watching you when you did it. You really could have been a little more ruthless, but it will serve. I will give you Jade Parker soon to replace her in your…bed. Show me her body."

Stone nodded and went into the bedroom, where Chelsea's pathetic, naked corpse still lay sprawled in death, with her eyes still open, uncovered, and unwashed.

"Help me fold the bedsheet around her," said Ekogaru. As Stone and Ekogaru worked, the Dark Lord said, "We will make a bundle that you shall carry out to a Staff Aircar I drove here. Her remains will be thrown into the backseat, and before rigor mortis sets in, we will have her in a crematorium in SS Headquarters. I have already concocted a false arrest warrant that she was under suspicion for espionage. The press release tomorrow will state that we arrested her, interrogated her, and you, by the way. You will have the living shit beaten out of you to make the story more convicing. Nothing personal, Jackson," said Ekogaru with a smile like a shark. "The details she gives us will lead to "conspirators", so-called, who will be all of the police detectives involved in the recent little escapade when we arrested and tortured Nova and Derek Wildstar, Katrina Savela and Kazuo. I don't want any of them to talk, and this will be an "internal cleansing" of the SS that will rid us of the deadwood and screwups whilst hiding our tracks most convincingly. Now, take her," said Ekogaru as he picked up Chelsea and handed her to Stone after the corrupt General clothed his own nakedness in a black and white kimono and stepped into wooden geta. "Tickle her all you want, Stone. She won't protest. Now."

Ekogaru went outside and opened a back door of the black staff car as Stone threw Chelsea onto the wide back seat on her back with her feet facing towards a window. A bare foot came out of the bundle, but Ekogaru covered it up and spat on the bundle. "Bitch," he lied. "She's burning in Hell now for trying to kill you. Do you know that?"

"She tried to kill me?" said Stone as he got into the staff aircar at the passenger side.

"It was either her or you, she determined," said Ekogaru. "I read the bitch's poor excuse for a mind. Oh well. After we beat you, we will send you home in that kimono…or what is _left_ of it," said Ekogaru with a grin. "You will get to carry Chelsea back home in a little cardboard box. Her ashes, of course. Like me to gift-wrap them for you as part of your playing the traumatized widower?"

"Make it white. She always liked white. With a pink ribbon. Make the card read, "_Happy Birthday in Hell, you bitch_!' said Stone.

Both Ekogaru and Stone laughed at this joke as the Dark Lord drove away, fading back into Maples as he pulled away from the curb in the dark.

* * *

Ekogaru soon resumed his true form back in SS Headquarters as he walked with Stone, who was carrying Chelsea's dead body. She was again in the nude….Ekogaru had torn the sheet from her form once they had entered the buildlng, where there was no need to hide either Chelsea's nakedness or the fact of her death.

They entered a room where Flagg was waiting, along with a bizarre-looking individual with a bald head, Satanic-looking moustache, and weird goatee. "What's his name?" said Stone as he threw Chelsea's body on the automatic conveyor belt that led into the crematorium oven.

"It used to be Leonard Charles Torman, but I am now forevermore known as…..The Creep," said Torman.

"The Creep?" said Stone. "Were you that serial killer who…?"

"He killed babies, sometimes did rude and disgusting things to them that are unspeakable and gross and very messy," said Flagg. "And, oh, yes. He ate them, too. Didn't you, Creep?" sad Flagg as Ekogaru and Stone arranged Chelsea's body on the belt. Stone took her wedding band off her dead finger, leaving her to go into the crematorium with nothing and as naked as the day she was born. There was no coffin, no prayers or rememberances, and no tenderness whatsoever as Ekogaru helped Stone push a button and the body of Chelsea Stone slid into the retort of the cremation device on a belt, with a hatch closing as soon as she was inside.

"Push this button, it will start the oven..I've used this a lot," said Ekogaru as Flagg and The Creep sat down at a table and began to play cards, with Flagg dealing. Stone pushed the button, shivering a little as heard the automatic gas furnace roaring inside the oven. He looked in through an observaton glass saw Chelsea's hair lighting ablaze as flames roared around her face.

"The nice thing about human flesh is that one has to season it just right," said The Creep as he said, "Lord Flagg, what are we playing?"

"Five Card Stud while we cook this little cake," said Ekogaru.

"Pity we have to burn her," sighed The Creep. "I think this one was an Eater. I see she looked very young and tender. Nice butt. We could have gotten some nice ham out of her."

"Let's eat her," purred Flagg. "Stone, could you turn that oven down? This will take some time. We'll play some cards before we begin beating you. We promise not to make it hurt _too_ much."

At that, Stone's evil new companions laughed sickeningly.

Stone went to work on the oven, thinking, _These weirdos actually want to __eat_ _my wife?_ He looked into the observation glass and saw that Chelsea was already burning merrilly. Her face was gone; it was just a charred skull, now. Her body was now clad in a garment of fire, a garment that was dissolving her as he saw a gout of flesh coming off her side as her breasts burned, revealing her nude rib cage. The bones there were beginning to glow.

"Well?" said The Creep.

"Her face is gone…her chest is just a rib cage and organs, and her right foot is burning down to its bones. Soon, there will be no meat…" Stone gasped.

Ekogaru came over and looked. "It is far too hot in there now to open this until her ashes cool, Creep. Although, if you insist, Creep, I may be able to phase a piece of her out of these onto a plate. The meat will be very hot and well-done, though."

"Naaaah, I like boiled or braised human meat much better," said The Creep. "Join us, Stone. We'll give you a share of the pot."

"And then beat the living shit out of you," said Flagg pleasantly as he cracked his knuckles. Stone sat that Flagg had the word LOVE tattooed on the knuckles of one hand and HATE on the other.

Stone gulped and sat down to play poker with his demonic friends as Chelsea burned away in the oven.

* * *

Another day passed. It was now the 19th of August.

On the _Argo_, off in space, Hardy flew a patrol five thousand megameters away from Mercury. He was not in a good mood.

_Damn you, Dawn…and damn you, too, Katrina,_ he thought. _Putting my son and I in this situation…because of this war between the two of yuh. Sometimes, ah wish you'd both drop dead_, Jefferson thought bitterly.

It was a smallish patrol. Deke flew one of the Tigers beside him, while Brew flew the other.

Hardy snapped, "Wakefield, yuh picking up anything?"

"Negative, sir," said Deke. "And why are we out here again?"

"Eager and Nova were both picking up signals," said Hardy. "And, thus we had to investigate them…"

"Ah, the usual snipe hunt," said Brew.

"Snipe hunt?" said Hardy. "Oh, yeah. We did that when ah was in the Boy Scouts. Camp in Georgia before the bombins' started."

""We're chasing blips, sir," said Wakefield. "Yeah, reminds me of a snipe hunt, all right…"

Later, after returning again to the _Argo_, Hardy arrived back on the First Bridge and said, "Captain, I have a report…"

"What did you find?" asked Derek from the Combat Group Leader's station while Hardy stood near the vacant Captain's station.

"Snipe hunt," said Hardy. "Nuthin, suh. One blip had a Spectran signature. It ran like a pig and none of us could catch up. The other three blips vanished as we were locking on and readyin' missiles."

"They did a space warp," Nova sighed. "You're right, Jeff. Snipe hunt."

"Can we find out who they were with the time radar?" Derek said.

"Sure can. Hardy, give me coordinates where you saw the ships," Nova said.

"Shure. First ship….RPG 322 by DL 52…"

Nova did a scan, and looked up at the screen above her head. "Have a look. Spectran. It looks like a giant…bat…"

"How original," sighed Harper.

"How weird," Eager said.

"Nova, second set of coordinates is RPH 52 by EF 66," said Hardy.

"Looking," Nova said. She punched in more coordinates. "Derek, look up. Bolar destroyers. Three of them. We are being followed."

"Sir, I recommend a warp," said Stephen Sandor from his post.

"Where should we go?" said Derek as he looked at Nova and Steve.

Nova pushed her hair back out of her eyes as Sandor said, "Random warp to the Venus Orbit, I'd recommend."

"Good one," said Derek. "Nova, get Harper some random-number coordinates?"

"Roger," Nova said, working another program in the computer. A moment later, she said, "Mister Harper, I am sending you coordinates; WQA 301 by ASH 154."

"Got them, setting up the _Argo_ to warp," he said.

"Bringing up the wave motion engine," said Diane from her post.

"All hands, we are making a space warp in three minutes," Derek said over the PA. "Make all preparations for warp. Secure all posts." Derek turned back to Nova and said, "Call Sickbay; have Doctor Sane check on the kids."

"He just sent me a text, Derek," Nova said. "He said Alex and Ariel are sleeping right now. He did say Ariel missed the potty and had a poop accident ten minutes ago."

"Babies," laughed Harper from his post. "I remember when my boy, whom we call Tiny, did stuff like that," he said as he strapped in for the warp.

"Ready to warp," said Harper. He did most of the countdown and said, "Three…two…one, zero…WARP!"

"WARP!" snapped Derek.

The _Argo_ roared into warp.

Derek looked back at Nova at her post as they went into warp.

Nova looked down at herself as the _Argo_ faded into hyperspace, feeling the strange but typical feeling of dislocation as the stars outside turned multiple colors and began to whizz past in blue, and then in multicolored streaks.

_I'm at my post one minute,_ she thought. _Now, I'm floating there…above myself….now…I'm over there…._

_..in my underwear,_ she said to herself as she felt a cool breeze against her bare stomach and feet all of a sudden….

Then, as the sense of disorientation increased, Nova looked down at herself again. _Now…there goes everything…I'm…naked…wonder if this is happening to Alex and Ariel…if they're not too scared, they'll probably like it, _Nova thought with a giggle. _Like most toddlers, they l__ove_ _to be naked!_

Nova blushed as she looked at herself. _I wonder when they'll come back this time?_ she thought. _How many seconds has this been?_

Nova then felt herself "gleaming" with light as a bright light appeared from nowhere, and the colors turned weird.

She closed her eyes.

When she opened them again, she was clothed again in her uniform.

Then, she looked over at Diane….who was herself naked.

And Eager was in the same situation.

Luckily, their clothing reappeared just as they came out of warp.

"Warp completed!" barked Harper from his post.

"Whew," said Sandor. "That was a weird one…"

"Yeah, you're telling me," Nova said with a nervous laugh.

"You okay?" Derek asked.

Nova said, "Aye, skipper. Stomach is just…strange…" she said as she patted herself to make sure her uniform was on, which it was.

A moment later, blips appeared on Nova's radar. "What?" she said. "Unidentified vessels!" she barked. "Range, three megameters, speed, twenty five space knots! Coming from off the port side at WQZ-245 by ZZ 22, at high speed; vessels identified as Bolar Federation vessels…six space battleships and twelve destroyers; total of eighteen vessels!"

"MISSILES APPROACHIN!" yelled Eager.

A moment later, missiles began to slam into the _Argo_ from port, blasting in bit by bit. The damage was minor at first, but it got much worse a mere two minutes later when three more space battleships warped in and began to bombard the _Argo's_ unprotected keel at close range.

"Change our angle of approach, Harper!" barked Derek from his post. "Opening main guns!" he yelled. "Mister Kaufamn!" he barked as he began to work the main guns himself. "Get our pulse lasers and counterattack missiles firing at those bastards!"

"Yessir!" said Kaufman while he worked the controls at Artillery and shouted orders.

"Derek, they're leaving a hole at Zed-Zed forty-six!" Nova barked.

"Harper, take us there. Main guns ready! Commence attack!" Derek barked.

The main guns turned to port and commenced a full broadside a moment later, giving the _Argo_ a brief respite from her tormentors as six Bolar destroyers and two of the space battleships blew apart.

Derek fired again, and two more destroyers were blown to bits.

However, a destroyer roared in at close range, raking the main foredeck and Gun Turret Number One with heavy fire.

A terrifying red light appeared in the bridge windows as three missiles slammed into the bridge tower in rapid succession. Diane Sandor screamed as she saw the bridge windows beginning to crack, and she yelled. "Steve! The windows have taken shrapnel hits! We need to lower the blast shields!"

Derek snapped, "Sandor! Lower the blast shields…and then…"

As Sandor responded to the order the _Argo_ took three more hits; one of which damaged the lower fighter bay, and another one, which damaged the upper port fighter bay.

"Damnit, Sandor!" Derek snapped. "It's like someone told them where to hit us!"

"Who could that have been?" said Eager.

A moment later, something else slammed into the _Argo's_ bridge tower. A moment later, Hardy snapped to as he heard banging and yelling below. He ran to the Captain's console and heard a speaker coming on there. "Commodire! This is Astrogation Post Five, right below your bridge! Enemy boarding pod, we are being boarded, we are being…!"

The sound of a blaster cut him off as they heard loud noises. "Sandor! Lock both aft access hatches!"

"Locking," said Sandor.

Derek looked around while continuing to fight the enemy fleet. "Kaufman! Eager! Sasha! Leave your posts and help Hardy defend the First Bridge!"

Sasha, at Analysis, saluted grimly as she took off. Derek then yelled, "All hands, weapons at the ready, space gear on if you have it nearby! Defend this bridge!"

"Yessir!" snapped Diane, Nova, Steve, Kaufman, Homer, Hardy, Harper, Sasha, and Eager all as one. Nova worked her post with a weapon in one hand as she said, "Three more destroyers have warped in at RDS 300, Derek! The space battleships are pulling back! They must think they've got us!"

"Not while I can still fight, Goddamn it!" Derek snapped.

A moment later, the hatch at the starboard side was burned open and it exploded, hitting Homer with shrapnel. He screamed and fell to the deck. Nova said, "Derek, I need help to get him over here! I can't abandon my post!"

"Kaufman!" snapped Derek. "Get Homer over to Nova. Then protect them while we shoot these guys back where they came from!"

"Roger!" said Kaufman as he dragged a moaning Homer over towards the radar, where Nova simutaneously watched the screens and began to rip Homer's sleeve off to treat him.

Enemy troopers ran in a moment later, shooting as they came. The tactical radar was damaged and Eager was wounded as smoke from a fire began to fill the bridge.

An enemy trooper kicked Hardy, but Jeff kicked him back, throwing him to the ground and then shooting him.

Another trooper ran for Sasha. She screamed and kicked him in the crotch, and then she shot him through the heart, with no hesitation. Three more ran at her, but she screamed, raised her hand, and used the power that was in her to throw them back against Engineering.

As they bounced off, Diane and Kaufman shot them down like tenpins.

Another trooper aimed at Sandor. The bolt just missed him, and Nova slipped, her Astro-Automatic flying out of her hand. She caught the weapon under a booted foot before the enemy trooper could get it, and Nova defended Sandor by grabbing a spare combat knife from her small locker and throwing it at the enemy trooper's throat as she screamed. It caught him in the throat, and he fell back bleeding.

Another pair of troopers attacked the forward part of the bridge from over the Astro-Compass. Harper took a hit in his chest that threw him back in a gout of pain and blood.

Derek stood, his helmet flying off as he held up his weapon and then shot at two of their tormemtors.

And, a moment later, before Nova's horrified eyes, even as Derek shot down another one of their attackers like a dog….

...Derek also took a hit in his right shoulder that threw him down, felling him in his path. Derek hit his head on the deck and fell unconscious as Nova screamed.

Hardy ran to Derek's side, holding the unconscious man as he held his weapon on a Bolar trooper.

Nova regained her Astro-Automatic, dropped it again, and then, she grabbed it.

She stood over Derek, and looked around and barked, "Which one of you enemy troopers is in command here? HUH?"

A very fat Bolar said, "I am, GIRL! I am Captain Igor Strelnikov of the Bolar Federation 113th Attack Fleet Flagship _Ramasky_! Where is Commodore Derek Wildstar? I am commanded by Admiral Rosskovsky to capture him alive so he can be studied, interrogated, and tormented, in that order! Same with his stupid _mishka _woman!"

"You've got us!" Nova barked. "But as far as capturing us, you can go _straight to Hell_!" Nova said as she both held Derek with one hand and held her weapon on the enemy with another. There was a fire in her eyes that even made Strelnikov step back. "I'm in command here now since the Commodore is hurt!" Nova snapped. "Now get off my vessel before I shoot your guts out against that bulkhead!"

"Try it, _whore_!" Strelnikov snapped as he levelled his weapon at Nova's face.

Nova snarled at him, aimed and did exactly what she said, shooting him through the stomach with a brutal gut shot that sprayed his intestines and internal organs out in a mess against the Astro-Compass. As Strelnikov fell, Nova pumped another shot through his head, causing it to explode. Nova's uniform was splattered with blood, but she did not care much at this point.

Derek moaned, and Nova held him and comforted him, saying, "Darling, it's all right…they're all gone now…it's all right now…I've assumed command…" Nova kissed Derek, who opened his eyes weakly and kissed Nova while she took a moment to tear his shirt open to bandage his shoulder wound while she snapped to Sandor, "Can Eager get up? We need to know where the enemy is! Derek is in no shape to command..."

"Bullshit," muttered Derek. "I…" He tried to stand up, but he fell against Nova. She braced him and helped him to Sasha's post, looking up at the main screen as Eager got it on from the Cosmo-Radar. "The enemy fleet is regrouping due ahead of us…comin' at high speed…"

"Hardy! Are you checked out to fly the _Argo_?" Nova said while pulling on a pair of gloves to help her work the weapons systems…since her hands were covered with Derek's blood.

"I did it like four times in the war with the New Comet, Nova…Ah'm checked out…" said Hardy.

"Good. Jeff, help Harper away from there to Eager's post and then take the helm after I leave," Nova said from the helm after she kissed a moaning, half-conscious Derek. He thought, _Yeah, Nova, I'm as woozy as shit…better that you're in command right now, kiddo…. _

A moment later, as Hardy took the helm, Nova sat down at Combat and said, "Sandor, we have to attack them now before we get back in range. How badly damaged are we?"

"The two forward gun turrets are out and have taken minor damage. Power is the problem, Nova. Those turrets have to be rewired to the main power trunk.

Nova stared hard at the Combat console, on which she had received some training in 2199 and in 2207. She turned to Diane. "How's the engine?"

"You need power, Nova, we got power!" she said.

"Great," Nova said with a grin. "Diane. Stop all engines."

There was a pause as she did that as Eager said, "First wave o' missiles fired! One minute to impact!"

Then, Nova turned to Diane and said, "Transfer all energy to the wave motion gun!"

"Aye' ma'am, but who's firing it?"

As Derek moaned, Nova winked at him and said, "Me! Who else? C'mon, people!" she snapped. "I need wave energy now!"

Diane flicked the proper switches and said, "Energy buildup commenced! Energy level at sixty percent!"

"One hundred seconds to firing," Nova said. "Hardy, I need your help here. Lock us right on the lead ship of the enemy fleet!"

"Aye, ma'am, locked on and ready!"

"All hands, prepare anti-shock and anti-flash defenses in case the flash comes in over the main screen, even with the shields down," Nova said.

"Energy level seventy-six percent," said Diane as Steve smiled at Nova, who looked rather small and desperate, but capable, as she unlocked the gun firing grip and popped up the target scope. "Target scope open! Correct for magnetic drift, crossgauge level, plus three!"

The fleet appeared on Nova's target scope as she stuck the goggles in her hair while the pulse of the building energy charge filled the ship. "Thirty seconds to firing. Brace for missile impacts!"

The missiles hit the _Argo_, causing her to shake, but keeping her on course.

"Second wave fired!" said Eager from his post.

"We'uh good, ship on course, Nova…"

"Energy level, ninety percent!" said Diane.

"Good show," said Nova. "Open safety lock!"

Nova flicked the right switches, and the safety lock cylinder locked in. Nova pulled down her goggles and smiled as Diane said, "Energy level, one hundred percent!"

"Ten seconds to firing!" Nova said. "Ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four..three…two..one…Zero…FIRE!"

Nova then pulled back the trigger and fired.

The usual cataract of energy boiled out of the _Argo's_ bow just as the Bolars were beginning to get the hint and started to warp out. One space battleship escaped along with one destroyer. The others did not, all of them boiling away in a huge ball of light and gas.

Nova sat back, threw off her goggles and said, "_whew!_" as she wiped her brow. She looked at Sandor, smiled a little, and said, "You think they're gone?"

"Eager says they are. And I've called some medics for the Skipper."

"Hey…I'm waking up, said Derek. "What'd I miss? Nova, was I dreaming about you firing the wave motion gun?"

"No, dear, you weren't dreaming," Nova said as she kissed him while medics and Marines came up to clear away the dead. Some Troopers followed the Marines up…one was Jonathan, who looked horrified as he saw his mother helping his father onto a stretcher. "DAD!" he cried, running up to hug Derek and Nova.

"Whoa, Cadet," Nova said. ""Breach of discipline! I'm getting the Captain to Sickbay! Help those men get rid of the dead Bolars all over the place! Sandor! You have the conn until one of us gets back!"

"Yes, XO," Sandor said as he saluted Nova. "The ship's taken a lot of damage."

"How's our survey work gone?" moaned Derek from the stretcher.

"We have results," said Sandor. "They will take a few days to analyze, but we can report to the Defense Council in a day or two….at least a preliminary report. Since we have to return home before heading to Iscandar to escort Alex and Starsha's vessel back to their home, I recommend heading home now. The _Argo_ needs dockyard time, ASAP…"

"Good thought," said Derek. "Nova, you and Steve do that. How long will I be down?"

"Knowing you and your history with that arm, probably a day or so," Nova said. "C'mon. Let's get you to Sickbay with Harper and Homer and get you fixed up…"

* * *

**ONE HOUR LATER….**

"His heart rate is good, Doctor," Nova said in Sickbay as she listened to Derek's heart with a stethoscope. He had been stripped of his clothes and was bare under his bedsheet. Nova's hair was a bit wet from her shower, and someone told her Alex was crying for his milk when she came out of the shower after shedding her bloody uniform and literally running naked through Decontamination to kill any possible bugs from the Bolar blood she had been sprayed with. Unable to find his Sippy Cup, Nova quickly dressed in on only a lab coat and sandals as she treated Harper with Alex in her lap and one breast out, figuing, _There is nothing here Mister Harper has not already seen. _Alex went back to his crib, sleepy, as Nova checked Homer, and then, she sat here with Derek.

"This mission is turning out, thus far, to be a major fiasco," Derek moaned.

"We did a good job fighting those guys off, and we got nice and lucky, dear," Nova said. Then, she heard crying and saw Doctor Sane carrying in Ariel, who had on pink training pants and a top in pink with a little bunny on it. The toddler smiled and ran over barefoot to her mother when she was put down. She reached Nova, who scooped her up and said, "Now, Ariel, what do you need?"

"I saw you giving milkie to Alex, how about ME?" she said.

"Okay, dearest, " Nova said as she opened her lab coat down about three buttons and let her breast out. Ariel smiled and took it, and then looked with concern at her father as Derek said, "At least you and the kids are all right. That was the biggest worry I had."

"My biggest worry is you and your shoulder," said Nova. "Doctor, how are his head scans?"

"Nothing major because you have a hard head, Wildstar," Sane snapped. "And you're giving that same crazy hard head to my best nurse! Nova, why the hell did you have to be a big heroine and go fire the wave motion gun at them?"

"It was us or them, Doctor," Nova said.

"Exactly," said Derek.

Ariel looked at her father and took her mouth off her mother's nipple. "Mommy, why is Daddy hurt? And I was scared of all the noises!"

"We got into a battle, dear," said Nova. "But we won. They were bad since _they _started it. But, we finished it."

"Yaaay!" said Ariel. "Why did they have to hurt my Daddy?"

"Because Daddy is in command and the bad men were trying to take him away," Derek said. "But Daddy and Mommy fought them off. Right, Mommy?"

"Right, Daddy," Nova said with a wink. Ariel kissed Nova and closed up her coat. She was getting uncannily good with buttons. "How hot is it at home, Mommy?"

"Probably very hot," Nova sighed. "And it might stay hot for a few more months…or maybe years. Darn Bolars."

"I wish they'd die, Daddy, Mommy," said Ariel.

"Me too," said Derek as he tousled his daughter's hair. "Me too…"

* * *

**VI. A HUNT FOR A MADMAN **

**The Space Yacht _Lady Katrina_**

**The Vicinity of The Galactic Rim**

**August 20, 2208**

**0300 Hours** …**.**

* * *

In the meantime the _Lady Katrina_ which was now following the signals of a Spectran ship towards the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. It was now the 20th of August.

They had found the signal, lost it again, found it again, and it was thought that, by later in the morning, they might be back on its trail again.

Right now, though, Kazuo and Invidia were not that much interested in Zoltar's trail.

They were more interested in…each other.

It was about 0300 Hours on the 20th of August.

Katrina had made the Change a while ago, and she was in her true guise as Invidia, naked in bed with Kazuo. For half an hour now, they had been in bed with each other, touching, cuddling, engaging in foreplay.

She was lying in their bed, behind some decorative curtains, in their otherwise modernistic-looking master cabin, spooned against Foxy as he touched her, teasing her breasts with one hand, and teasing the center of her with his other hand.

"You're driving me…mad…" she whispered. "Goddess…you…you…driving me out of my mind….ohhh…'

"Get your legs around my leg," he whispered in Invidia's ear.

"Why is…that…I like this too…ohhhh…yessss…."

Foxy whispered, "You're ready for me, my love…I want to be inside you now…"

As he kissed her, he slipped one leg under hers, and then he moved his other foot up, teasing the bottom of Invidia's toes with his own. Her wine-red polished toenails glittered in the dim light as they kissed while his manhood pressed against her wet rosette.

Wanting him, needing him, Invidia helped Kazuo enter her a moment later, shivering with pleasure as Kazuo played with the erect nipple on one of her breasts. He kissed her again and again as he whispered, "The thing about you is…."

"Yes?" whispered Invidia as he thrusted into her and she rode him, thrusting back, enjoying the feel of him inside her, enjoying the feel of his hands all over her, shivering as their toes curled against each other.

"You're so damn sexy and elegant…." Kazuo whispered.

"You too, Foxy one…ohhh…..please…yess,"

The two of them continued to roll and shiver in their dance of esctacy while they kissed.

"It is so hot in here," whispered Invidia. "I am so hot…you are driving me…."

"Driving you what?" whispered Kazuo.

"OUT of my mind! _Ohhhhh_!" cried Invidia as she felt her body slipping into a hot, shivering climax about two minutes later.

Invidia shivered against Kazuo, filled with love for him, gasping as she felt his seed blasting up inside her as he also hit his own climax.

They lay there in blissful happiness, touching and kissing each other….

…when, suddenly, the whole ship trembled under them.

"What is that?" yelled Invidia. "When you said you would rock my world, I didn't mean it so…"

"Invidia!" whispered Foxy. "Something hit us! Change, for Arishna's sake!"

Invidia kissed him again, and she then made her naked body shimmer as her raven-colored hair turned dark purple, and her features melted and twisted into those of Katrina. She grew a bit taller in her other guise, but her toenails were still dark red, and her nude body still smelled like passion and was covered in sweat as Kazuo found a semi-sheer white sundress and wrapped it around her body.

Katrina did not bother with undergarments, and she did not particularly care (as the _Lady Katrina_ was hit again) that her hardened, erect nipples showed somewhat through her dress as she and Foxy buttoned it shut. She kicked on a pair of flat white sandals and then pulled Kazuo's pants up and helped him into the same sort of blue and white pullover his crew wore. He kicked into sneakers just as the alert klaxons went on and First Mate Raful yelled, over the PA, "We are under attack! Spectran vessel! We have taken two hits! Captain to the Bridge, Goddamnnit!"

"Coming!" yelled Foxy as he picked up a phone and yelled into it. He and Katrina kissed again before running to the cockpit.

"Yes, like _we_ were," whispered Katrina in his ear.

"Katrina, cut the jokes, this is life or death!" snapped Foxy. "GO! RUN!"

After he slapped her on her barely-clad butt, Katrina ran.

On the way there, they almost bowled right into Yuri Tsukikage, who was pulling on her glasses as she ran towards the cockpit in nothing but a sleep shirt.

Yuri and Katrina looked at each other, and Yuri said, "It looks like someone was having fun before…I thought I sort of heard you two at it in there!"

"Damn you, it is none of your business what I do in my private time with husband!" yelled Katrina.

"Cut the crap, you two!" snapped Kazuo. "Katrina! Put her in the main pulse laser turret! Show her where it is and get it going! We need anti-spacecraft fire yesterday! Then you get in the fighter and prepare to launch!"

"Yessir," they both snapped. Yuri was a little surprised at how Foxy was able to change demeanor from goofy and silly to dead serious within a few minutes. She thought, _It must take a crisis to make him serious, but he seems to be a damn good commander when he has to be. He is the master of this ship. I thought he was a dillentate or something._

Katrina then grabbed Yuri's hand. She saw that she was shaking but in control of herself. "Follow me!" she barked. As Haruna peeped her head out of the cabin, Katrina yelled, "You follow Raful to the belly turret, Haruna! I need you two firing in the next thirty seconds, or we may be fucking dead!"

"Right," said Haruna as she finished pulling on her shorts over the panties she had slept in. She already had on a cropped top, having tried to adapt to the heat inside the vessel while sharing a cabin with her daughter.

Soon, Yuri was climbing barefoot up a ladder into the turret as she jumped into the gunner's seat and prayed she could figure out the controls. _These seem pretty standard,_ she thought as she flicked switches and brought up the computerized target scope.

She caught the enemy ship making a looping pass towards them, firing green lasers energy as it came. It was something that looked like a deranged bat in silver and black. Yuri caught it in her scope and twisted the turret around as her bare toes worked the pedals to change the aberration and aim as it spun slightly. When she had the vessel on target, she fired.

Yuri smiled as she scored a hit on the vessel, but the reaction on board the bat-like ship was _not_ one of pleasure.

The enemy vessel was Spectran, and the head officer in charge was, indeed, a still-wounded Ibn Zoltar.

He had had a near run-in with the _Argo_ the previous day that might have resulted in his death then if he had been forced to go into all-out battle with the massive space battleship. Still, Zoltar had been satisfied that he had been able to send the _Argo's_ location to the Bolar Fleet Captain named Strelnikov he had been in touch with days ago, and had been pleased to hear from Strelnikov that he would soon have the _Argo_ hacked apart.

Zoltar had made his escape then, but as he had escaped to Pluto, the EDF Patrol Cruiser _Danube_ had caught up with him. He had damaged the _Danube_, but he had taken damage himself that had caused him to warp out here. Now, after having made repairs, Zoltar and his six-man crew were in battle with _this_ ship, that he thought would be easy pickings to loot and raid.

Of course, Zoltar had no idea that Strelniklov, overconfident, had personally boarded the _Argo_, where a rather angry Nova had sent him to the next life with two well-placed shots.

Zoltar sat back, smiling to himself while remembering when he had had one of his most hated enemies in his grasp….and he was sure that he would soon have _this_ enemy in his grasp.

_It was the year 2074…back in the day when Zoltar had been a different, much younger man known as Berg Katze._

_In those days, Berg Katze had been the Commander of the forces of the terrorist organization Galactor. Katze and the modern Zoltar were the same person, or should it be… the same mutant freak?_

_At that time, Katze's men had just captured a brazen G-2, Joe Asakura, who Katze suspected was a member of the Science Ninja Team Gatchaman._

_However, the Condor was a very troublesome bird to catch._

_In fact, in the darkened command room of his ship, Katze had a sneaking admiration for the Condor as he went berserk, having darkened the command room, where he was busy taking down his goons one by one in the dark._

"_Watch out! He's close by!" yelled one of the Galactor soldiers as they wondered, in the dark, where Joe would strike next._

_Suddenly, a random goon was pulled back as a set of hands throttled him._

_The Galactor troops fired their submachine guns at where they suspected the Condor was, but, instead, the Sergeant who had been grabbed just fell to the deck, bleeding from many bullet wounds as Joe had used him as a human shield._

_Hilgaz, the bearded Lieutenant in charge of the detail, snapped, "There are windows here, right? OPEN THEM!"_

"_Yes, Chief!" snapped one of his men._

_The hapless Galactor pulled open a curtain, and a hand emerged from behind it with a roundhouse punch, knocking him on his butt._

_Katze thought, as he watched, You people are such damn incompetents! You idiots!_

"_THERE HE IS!" yelled the troops. They began to fire like madman._

_Katze hissed, "Impudence," under his breath as he turned on a spotlight, remembering from his intel that G-2 had received a brain injury from shrapnel, and that its effects were killing him and giving him an aversion to bright light. He thought, A bright light will help us flush that damn carrion bird out and also torment him when the light hits his eyes. Bastard!_

"_YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY!" hissed Katze as he pinned Joe down with the light. Finally caught and bedazzled, the Condor knelt helplessly in his civilian outfit as he tried to shield his eyes. "C'mon, stand up!" barked Hilgaz as he laughed while he and his men held weapons on Joe. "That's a good boy; stand up nice and SLOW!"_

_Hilgaz slammed Joe in the chest and then in the face with his weapon as he knocked him around, and then he shoved him over to some of his men for the same sadistic treatment. After Joe had been kicked around, he staggered into Hilgaz's arms while Hilgaz grabbed his hair and hissed, "What happened to all of your spunk, scum?"_

_Hilgaz let his men beat him more; then Joe staggered into Katze's arms._

_Zoltar smiled to himself as he remembered grabbing the G-2 and mockingly tipping up his face. "Yes, where the hell DID all of your spunk go? Not very healthy now, are you? Are you ready to tell me the identities of the other four members of the Science Ninja Team yet? So we can bring them here to you and have a damn little family reunion?"_

_Zoltar had had no idea what had gone through Joe's mind, but the Luminous One, who then went by the name Generalissimo X, later revealed to him, "He was thinking of not giving up his comrades."_

"_Who were they?" Katze had demanded._

_The Luminous One had thought, I know who they are. Ken Washio, Jun, Ryu, Jinpei…I know who the hell they are, but need I tell Katze yet? Nay, let him find out himself. He will find out soon enough. If he is halfway efficient before I destroy the Earth with the Mantle Project and cast Katze aside, that is. Instead, X had only told Katze, "You will find out who they are, in time. If you interrogate Asakura a bit more, he will break!"_

_Zoltar shut his eyes as he remembered G-2, right in his hands. _

"_You just don't get it, DO you?" Joe had hissed. "There is no damn way in hell I'd ever talk for someone like you, idiot!" _

_Then, he had spat in Katze's face._

_Katze had laughed, Then, as he wiped away the spit on his cheek, he said, "So brazen! Yes! You are a vicious piece of crap! If I had just one man like you under my command….this war would have gone differently, I am sure! Ohhh..how unfortunate that good men like you are hard to find! Men, restrain him!"_

_His men held Joe while Katze punched him in the gut, the face, kicked him in the testicles, left him gasping, while Hilgaz kicked him across the room, yelling, "What the fuck's the matter with you, HUH? Too weak to say boo to Lord Katze?"_

"_Yes, what's the matter?" mocked Katze as he walked up to Joe. "Too weak to do much? Looks as if you've finally settled down, you scum!"_

_Then, Zoltar smiled to himself as he remembered grinding Joe's face into the deck with his boot. "Ah! The great Science Ninija Team Member Condor looks just as weak as anyone when he is beaten down like this, eh?" Zoltar remembered that he was actually getting aroused at that moment; torture turned him on. "No matter how much you carry on, it is now only a matter of time! It seems you are not aware that Galactor's work will soon be done! I'd have you killed now, except that I need you as a hostage to guide the rest of your team to ME! And I will then halt Gatchaman in their tracks! Like the fact that you will be the cause of your team's end, you weakened scum?"_

"_All right!" snapped Katze. "Commence operations for the Black Hole Operation at once! We go to Cross Karakoram base immediately!"_

* * *

The man once known as Berg Katze sat on his ship as, suddenly, the _Lady Katrina_ launched a fighter plane, which made a quick warp, and then swept in on him.

Katrina, who had made the Change back to Invidia behind her helmet, laughed like mad as she strafed Zoltar's ship and shot out one of its four engines.

"Lord Zoltar!" yelled one of his men. "Number Four engine is damaged! We need to compensate!"

"Where did that roach come from?" yelled Zoltar.

"It appears they have a fighter plane that can warp…they…"

Then, Invidia flew around again, and knocked out Zoltar's number two engine with an evil grin on her face. "Great going…you are almost in my power, murdering freak!".

"We are down to two!" said an officer. "This ship needs two to warp!"

"Warp us out of here!" said Zoltar, panicking now.

Zoltar's crew made ready to warp. But, as they did, Invidia came around again. "_I haf you now_!" she said as she lined him up in her scope.

Invidia fired, hitting Zoltar's ship right as he warped.

* * *

The warp was sudden, violent, uncontrolled, and strange. Zoltar lost two of his men into the Fourth Dimension during the warp as they literally drifted away when the substance of the ship was tenuous for a moment.

In agony, Zoltar came out of warp right in a strange star system.

"Where are Digaz and Harka?" he yelled.

"Sir, sensors indicate they are dead," said an officer named Magla. "My readouts indicate that we are in the Great Magellenic Cloud…"

"What?" said Zoltar. "Where?"

"The Sanzar System," said Magla. "We are approaching…Planet Gamilon….."

"Gamilon?" said Zoltar. "Now, this is not the best of situations. When can we warp again?"

"Five days," said Magla.

"WHAT?" hissed Zoltar.

"The computer of this ship is damaged. We need repairs…"

"DAMNED fate!" hissed Zoltar….

* * *

On Gamilon, it was late in the evening.

Leader Desslok was in his personal bedchamber with Astrena.

The nurses had put Dellar and Aisha to bed, and the Leader of the Empire had just been enjoying his private pleasures with Astrena. They had stripped themselves long ago, and two ladies-in-waiting had been on call, waiting as Desslok and Astrena made love, making quiet but discreet note of their initmacy so that the time of conception could be duly recorded if the Lady of Gamilon and acting Queen of the scattered Pellians became pregnant yet again.

It was an "after-the-loving" moment while Desslok and Astrena cuddled up to each other, with Astrena tenderly wiping Desslok's member clean and dry as he emerged from the bath for a drink brought by another servant.

"A fine vintage?" he purred.

"Yes, Leader Desslok one of our finest," said the servant.

"Not as fine as you," whispered Astrena. Desslok looked down at Astrena and smiled at her as he admired her nakedness. He thought her mature breasts, flat stomach, and long legs looked particularly beautiful tonight. She had been in the nude ever since after dinner, when one of her ladies-in-waiting had given her a massage. She had been warm, and Desslok had then asked her not to summon her wardobe attendants for any rainment at all for her. After she had fed Aisha and played with Dellar, Astrena took a call from one of her liasions on Iscandar, and then she had retired to bed with Desslok.

Now, by the look on her face, it seemed she wanted to return back to their bed, and she whispered to Desslok, "After our bath…?"

"Yes, dear, we can return back to…"

Then, as a lady-in-waiting brought food and lotions at the ready, Desslok heard a Household Staff Officer snapping to behind him. "Yes?" Desslok sighed.

"Leader Desslok," said the staff officer as he bowed with a phone on a tray. "The Security Station on Planet Number Twelve of the system is calling with an important despatch."

"Didn't I tell you NOT to disturb my pleasures, Melgratz?" snapped Desslok as the first servant poured the wine into his goblet. "What is it?"

"Sir, Talan ordered me to bring this to you. He says this call is important!"

Desslok snarled as he took his hand out of Astrena's hair and motioned Melgratz forward. Desslok took the phone and said, "YES?" into it in cold tones.

"Leader Desslok, this is Hargla on Twelve. We have spotted an enemy vessel entering our system two thousand _gerads_ away from our base."

"Have you identified it yet, Hargla?"

"It is small. It matches the signature of a vessel that blasted away from Terra recently. The Earthlings reported this vessel was carrying a fugitive terriorist leader from Spectra known as Ibn Zoltar, responsible for several terrorist action on Earth, including rapes, murders of governmental officials, and assaults on two members of the First Star Force."

"The Star Force?" Desslok said sharply. "I cannot allow this insult to my friends to go unpunished. You are far out. What is the nearest vessel?"

"The destroyer _Z-643_, sir," said Hargla.

"Get me in touch with that Captain. NOW," said Desslok. "I want that vessel dealt with. Without mercy!"

"Yessir," said Melgratz.

* * *

**TO BE CONTINUED…..**


	5. Chapter 5

**THE FIRE IN THEIR EYES**

**A VERY Dark Star Blazers fanfic (Rating: Heavy R): THIS TALE IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!**

**PART FIVE: IN PURSUIT OF A MADMAN **

**By Frederick P. "Freddo" Kopetz**

**References to Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato are intended as homages and no infringement is intended. Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato are © 2011 by Voyager Entertainment and Engagio Productions. Includes References to _Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman_ (created by Tatsunoko Productions and Sandy Frank Productions) are © 2011 by those production companies, along with references to characters and situations from the works of Stephen King. These are all intended as homages; no infringement is intended.**

**Thanks to "Yuki Wildstar," Gail Kopetz, and Ami Meitsu for ideas contributed to this chapter**

**Thanks to SAMANTHA NOCERA (aka Steel Hyaena) for ideas contributed to this chapter. Thanks also to ANONYMOUS READER for ideas contributed.**

* * *

**I. A REPORT TO THE CREW OF**

**GAMILON DESTROYER _Z-643_**

**The Sanzar System**

**The Vicinity of Planet 12**

**August 20, 2208**

**0430 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

* * *

Gamilon Imperial Destroyer _Z-643_ was a fairly typical patrol vessel of the Gamilon Imperial Fleet. Constructed in early 2203, she was now in early middle age, and the vessel had won honors in several actions during the recent Second Cometine War.

The _Z-643_ was under the command of a Captain Havla. Havla was an officer with a beard and an eyepatch who had a foreboding yet fascinating appearance.

"Sir!" said one of the blue-armored crewmen who ran the vessel; he had been a Garuman, now integrated into the greater forces of the Empire. "A message is coming in from Gamilon! Priority Urgent! Command Frequency!"

A moment later, the glass eyes lit up on the small bas-relief of Leader Desslok mounted on the frame that held the Main Bridge Screen, and his dulect voice, tinged with menace spoke from the speakers as the whole bridge crew snapped to attention. "Captain Havla! It has been a while since you and I have spoken! I have an urgent errand that requires your immediate attention!"

"Yes, Leader Desslok?" said Havla as he trembled at the Summons.

"An enemy vessel has entered Imperial space near Planet Twelve. I am sending you technical readouts. It is a vessel from a neutral world known as Spectra that has possible hostile intent. I want the vessel destroyed…or forced to land on Gamilon, where _I_ can deal with it. Are we clear, Havla?"

"Yes, we are!" said Havla. "We will take off immediately to the specified point and seek to intercept."

"That is what I expect from you; no less," said Desslok, who was in his bath with Astrena. "Report back to me with the results, Havla. And _do_ make it at a _civilized _hour?" said Desslok as Astrena again kissed him and began to apply a soothing bath oil to his body.

"Yessir," said Havla. At that, he saluted, and the eyes on the icon of Desslok flashed and went dark.

* * *

A moment later, Melgratz left Desslok and Astrena alone as Astrena said, "My guess is that you want him herded towards Gamilon?"

Desslok smiled and nodded. "I most certainly do. Preferably in time for the Star Force's arrival here. Then, as a matter of honor, like a master throwing a werekat a dainty mouse, let our dear friend Wildstar deal with the Spectrans if at all possible. He could use the practice!"

Astrena shut her eyes and smiled. "I foresee some amusement from this," she said as Desslok tenderly lifted her up to the edge of the bathing pool and snapped his fingers towards a servant. The girl set down the tray of food and lotions and she returned with a towel, which Desslok took as he began to dry Astrena's feet and legs from her toes upward.

Astrena smiled as she kissed Desslok on the lips, and kissed down his body while Desslok dried her thighs, bottom, and then her sex. Her mouth kissed his erect manhood, and she took him tenderly into her mouth while Desslok's fingers gently parted her rosette like a flower. Astrena shivered pleasantly as Desslok found her natural dew and teased the center of her, spending an exquisite time paying special attention to the hardened nub he found.

Astrena let out a low sigh and said as she pulled her head up from Desslok, "The bed…please…the…bed…"

"I am going to make you explode right here first, Astrena," he said as he pulled up and manuevered Astrena an top of him. He helped her slide onto him, and soon, the Imperial couple happened to be joined on the carpeted, soft floor, with Astrena doing most of the work while Desslok kissed her and enjoyed their….private pleasures….

They would be at it for the next hour.

* * *

The dark…the exquisite dark of space….

Nova Wildstar was savoring that darkness at about the same time, in her bunk with Commodore Derek Wildstar,

It was about 0500 on the _Argo,_ which was cruising towards the Moon after having made the last space warp of this leg of their mission.

The protective shield had been raised in the Captain's Quarters, but Derek had made sure that the anodized privacy reflector built into the glass was on full strength first as Nova had carried Alex and Ariel into the cabin with her in her arms.

Once they were in there, Nova had put a soft pink satin sheet on the bed while Alex and Ariel ran around in the cabin. Then, she had tenderly undressed them for bed, encouraging them gently to stay dry by saying, "If you can promise me you'll wake up to go potty if you have to, no jammies on your tushies the next few days!"

They liked that. Nova had also undressed herself for bed, so she sat nude on the bed with Alex and Ariel as she gave them her breasts and snuggled with them, wondering when they would start getting their first teeth in. She had been able to feel hard spots in their gums, but they had not erupted yet. Then, they fell asleep. Nova carried them to the little futon she had set up for them on a tatami mat on the deck, and she had tucked them in as they slept cuddled against each other like two little kittens. Nova and Derek held hands as they admired their children. Then, Nova lay back on the bunk, her back to the ship's bow, as she slowly raised and opened her legs and whispered, "Now can Daddy take care of something Mommy needs? Do not stress your shoulder too much, though…"

"And that is?" Derek said as he took off his Star Force pants. Nova had actually kept him out of his shirt to encourage healing of the wound; fairly standard protocol when growth factor was used because a thin bandage and air getting to the site promoted healing. She and Doctor Sane had applied plenty of growth factor to the wound area, and Nova had asked Sasha to come down to Sickbay and use a little of her power on the wound to help it heal.

Derek had no complaints; it felt pleasant to be shirtless, and he said, as he looked at Nova, "I remember when you got that shoulder and upper breast bruised during flight training a few weeks ago. _You_ sure looked good with _your_ shirt off for about three days…"

"Yes, and the way my bandage went…I had to keep quite a bit uncovered," Nova said as she pointed at her right shoulder and breast…"You remember all I could really wear on top was either a lei to cover these…or…nothing at all but the bandage," Nova said. "And nursing the kids was a lot easier then, even though I did have to ask Alex to be gentle with my right breast and the bandage…"

Derek smiled at her, remembering that her attire one very hot day had consisted of her bandage, a very small fundoshi in white, sandals, and a necklace.

He smiled again when he saw Nova saying, "Now let's…do…something?" as she lay there looking very inviting in her skin. Soon, she was stripping him of his clothes, leaving him naked except for his bandages.

Nova pulled Derek close, smiling and shutting her eyes as he began kissing her breasts while she played with his manhood in her hand. The kisses went lower. Nova rocked back and forth and moaned a bit as he found her spot down _there_ with his tongue, and she moaned as she looked over at the kids, making sure they were still asleep

Derek admired her as she shut her eyes and lay writhing with pleasure in the starlight.

Nova was in seventh heaven…her back arched, her toes curled, and her rib cage and sculpted abdominal muscles showed with every breath. She noticed that Derek was pleasuring himself as he made love to her with his mouth. After she exploded in a starry climax, she cried, "Derek, please get onto the bed with me….please take me! _Please_!"

Derek did so, praying his wound would not rip under the bandages and sutures as he got onto the bed, lay back, pulled Nova's slender form on top of his own, and parted her legs as he helped her ride him.

_I hope the kids stay asleep, I hope they stay asleep, I hope they stay asleep,_ Nova thought urgently as she then thought, _Derek, you are driving me out of my mind….oh my God, you feel so beautiful inside me…you…._

Then, Nova cried out as Derek shut his eyes and gasped as his climax hit. Together again, Derek thought. _How we do that so much? God, this is fun! _Derek thought_. Not like when I was with Diane…sometimes, she struggled to get to this point, and I think she faked it. I gave Nova the details once, no names, and…she said, "Yup, your lady back then was faking it…"_

Derek looked at Nova fluttering her eyes at him and smiling. He then asked her, "Have you…y'know…ever faked on orgasm?"

"Heavens _no_!" Nova said. "I think that's manipulative and horrible on the part of a woman when they do that. Someone who does that has to work on their relationship or see a therapist or doctor who specializes in that sort of thing," Nova said as she lay side-to-side beside Derek, stroking his stomach, playing with his member. "Every time you've ever seen me going off that way, it's been real…"

"Why?" Derek said.

"Because I love you," Nova said baldly. Then, she blushed and said, "As soon as I know I was falling in love with you, on our first mission to Iscandar, I would never tell a soul, but I'd sometimes lie in my bed, fantasize about our wedding night…and….you know," she said sweetly. "I'd let my…hands wander and think of you…you were my ideal…."

"You were, too…you still are," Derek said. "I took a lot of cold showers because of you…"

"Me too," Nova said. "Even though…one night, I wanted you so badly, I ran back from the shower in just a towel, pulled it off, and thought of you for half the night with nothing on, and fell asleep that way, too." Nova blushed and smiled. "About…taking off my things…I enjoyed being naked on the beach a lot as a little girl, before the bombings. Derek, I used to like to strip and pretend I was a Native American in just a headband and necklace and nothing else on, except maybe a bucksin vest…on family camping trips, when I was about five or six. My parents thought it was so cute. Then, I grew…out of it. Blame parochial school and that stupid Serpent," Nova giggled." Then, when we became intimate, I began to enjoy it more again…" Nova lay on her stomach kicking her legs. "Now, with having to do this more with feeding the kids, and caring for them…well, especially in this strange heat back on Earth…I love to be undressed again. And it feels nice. And right. And I like it. Anything wrong with that?"

Derek shook his head. "Hell no, especially not on the beach. Or our pool….I've done some reading, and skinny-dipping is supposed to be more healthy than wearing a swimsuit, somehow…maybe it's the bit of ancient Cherokee blood in me coming out," Derek said, referring to the Native American blood that had somehow gotten into his family line.

Nova responded with, "Maybe blame the bit of Sioux blood in me someplace; I found out that a Forrester in Colorado who was already part-Japanese married a Sioux Medicine Woman," Nova said. "Also, when I checked the 'Net, I found out some of my ancestors were Jewish. It goes back several generatiions, back to when the overlord of whatever country they were in said, 'Convert or lose all you have in the next pogrom'." Nova sighed. "Freedom of conscience. What a concept to those kings and queens."

Derek kissed her back and said, "You sound sleepy."

"Sort of am. What time do we have to be up and about?"

"0545, Nova, Take a nap. I like watching you sleep, " he said as he cuddled her.

"Darling Derek," Nova said softly. She fell asleep, and dreamed some dreams for about an hour.

Then, the dreams ended, and Nova awoke with Derek looking at her. She came to as Derek said, "Nova, even though you look adorable just as you are, we need to get showers and get dressed."

"I know," Nova said sleepily. "Just a moment, please."

Then, she kissed him and they went into the shower…together.

* * *

After their shower, they checked what the temperature would be in the Eastern Sea when they landed south of Shikoku Island for the cruise on the ocean's surface to the Tokyo Megalopolis.

Nova went, "Oh, My God, Derek!" when she saw the readout.

"The Sun is not even up yet and it's already a hundred degrees on Great Island?" Derek said. "Nova, the Sun is going mad…."

"I feared it might be this bad," Nova sighed. "Those activity curves we graphed…it's going to be over a hundred and twenty degrees on Earth today, Derek. And I just want that blue peacoat on you on top. My uniform….," Nova said. She looked through her locker and pulled out one of her Medical unifoms, with its matching lab coat and sandals. She said, "Derek, it's going to be so hot…and I'm going to be checking you out in Sickbay and visiting Central Hospital later either before or after we meet with the Defense Council…..I'd like to wear my Medical uniform most of the day, and I don't think _need_ my legs covered on the ship anymore in my usual spacesuit since we are almost home?

Derek looked at her. He said, "That's fine. Put on the Medical whites. And when we get home…"

"Yes, darling?" Nova said.

"If it's hot at home, Nova, feel free to strip down as far as you want when we get home. I don't even mind if you just go naked when we get home…"

Nova smiled and kissed Derek as he romantically helped to dress her, starting with a small, cool fundoshi. Then, he helped her into her Medical dress, which came to her lower thighs.

Then, Alex woke up. "Mommy, Ariel farted!"

"No, Alexander farted!" squealed Ariel. "Mommy! We need the poopy spray! Alex smells like poopy!"

"YOU smell like poopy, poo-poo brain!" said Alex.

"We _all _smell like poopy in here!" Nova yelled back as she knelt down to sit with the kids on their futon.. "What do you two want to wear today?"

"NOTHING!" they giggled together.

"We're not at home, unfortunately, so that is not an option!" Derek said. "You two can strip when we get home. I think Mommy is undressing at home, too…." Derek said as he winked at Nova and she winked back.

"Ariel, I can find you a skirt or shorts," Nova said.

"Skirt, please! No shoes! Shoes yukky!" Ariel said. "Mommy has no undies on! PRETTY!" squealed Ariel as her mother bent over very far to get her clothes, which were a white and pink sailor top and almost knee-length dark pink skirt. Ariel's potty training was better, but she still struggled a little with undies when going potty, so she wore none today for the heat. Also, due to the warmth, Ariel would be kept barefoot, even though Nova or Derek would have to carry them over hot pavement, Nova felt that when running in the grass, sand, or a carpet or floor, barefoot was best for a growing toddler in nice weather. Nova blushed again as Ariel again sang, "Mommy has a pretty tushie!" as Nova and Ariel dressed, with Nova pulling on a very light fundoshi under her dress. Derek, in the meantime, was dressing Alex in a white and navy blue sailor top and shorts while Nova tied back Ariel's hair in a rough ponytail and tied a pink ribbon into her hair to hold it in place. Ariel looked at her mother as she pulled her dress down and said, "Mommy now has pretty fundoki-doki on!"

"Do not say that around IQ-9 or he'll never leave me alone…or her for that matter…Ariel, it's not nice to do that in public without a desperate reason…epecially around the funny robot!" Nova said as she got up and got Ariel to pull her own little skirt back down over her bare little bottom, with Derek smiling as he realized a good bit of Nova's long legs showed in her outfit.

"What, you don't want IQ to lift our daughter's skirt?" Derek teased.

"She's too young," said Nova.

"And I'd conk him with a hammer if he TRIED IT!" screeched Ariel.

"Conk the robot, conk the _robot_!" yelled Alex as his mother sighed and helped Derek put his shorts on his little bottom.

Later on, the _Argo_ cruised slowly through the sea as she approached the Shikoku Island chain.

A skeleton crew kept the ship on course while Commodore Wildstar spoke to his crew atop the battered Gun Turret #1, looking somewhat tired in his open Navy Blue short peacoat.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," said Derek. "We have succeeded in this, the first part of our mission, but at a cost. Eight dead, ten injured in that battle with the Bolars. I myself am one of those injured. Getting better, but…."

Derek coughed a bit and thought, _Maybe I should have had Nova do this? Naaaah…neither of us slept that well last night, I sense. And now..?_

Commodore Wildstar looked out at his crew and said, "Enough of that! This mission is not about me, or you, even though you've all been a great crew. It is about the fate of Earth. We have at last discovered that the Sun will not go supernova. It will heal…in time, we have discovered. Earth has some hard times ahead, but what we dealt with with Gamilon, the Comet Empire, and Ekogaru, was far, far worse."

Derek paused. "Except for the Engineering and Mechanical Groups, I give you forty-eight hours' worth of leave. It is 0900 now. We will meet again aboard ship in exactly two days to head off to Iscandar with the _Princess Astra_ to escort Lord Admiral Wildstar, my brother, and Queen Starsha back home. Yes, Starsha came to Earth; for some negotiations. She will return to Iscandar accompanied by our ship. We will undertake further training then, and, I have been informed that a private vessel of ours received a message from the Gamilons that the ship carrying the terrorist leader Ibn Zoltar, who has caused so much havoc, has been found in Gamilon territory."

Derek paused again. "Hopefully, Zoltar will soon be dealt with and become naught but a bitter footnote in history like Bin Laden and other madmen of his sort. And, on that note, we shall part until the twenty-second. Executive Officer, dismiss the crew, to be effective when we make port."

Nova then stood up to her full height and barked, "_Star Force!_ By order of the Captain, all hands are dismissed for liberty except for the Mechanical and Engine Groups! Have a good leave!"

The crew saluted their officers and left.

* * *

A while later, Derek and Nova were standing on the aft observation deck speaking to Hardy, who was about to fly off the ship and lead the Black Tigers back to the Megalopolis (the ship would be taking off again for a bit to allow for this). Jefferson looked at the Wildstars and said, "You're serious about this?"

"Given your situation, and given what we were going to do with the house in San Diego, namely sell it to you as soon as we can arrange the financing, it makes sense for us to let you and Dawn and David just move in there as soon as possible. We'll deal with Katrina and take care of any financial obligations."

"And I intend to give her a good piece of my mind," Nova said softly but with steel in her gaze as she tapped her fingers against her breast and wiggled her sandaled toes nervously.

Hardy thought, _Nova, you're softhearted, but you have a spine made o' reinforced steel and a mind like a steel trap when it comes down to it. You could easily beat that Katrina if it came down to a battle between the two of yuh, I think,_ he thought. He did not, of course, know that Nova had already beaten Katrina once, in a fight for their lives, when Katrina had been Princess Invidia.

Hardy said, "Nova, thanks."

"No problem," Nova said. "I'll see about getting a set of keys in your hand in the next day or so. There's furniture on there you can pick and choose from if you want. Derek and I have clothes and baby things in there and some personal stuff. We'll be bringing our clothes and personal stuff back to Great Island, but tell Dawn she's welcome to the baby stuff for David. A lot of it is clothing that Alex has already outgrown along with some of Ariel's more gender-neutral stuff that David might be able to use, like a pair or two of Ariel's brown or white sandals that would also work with a boy along with some of the dark-colored shorts and tops."

"Thanks, Nova," said Hardy as Nova gave him a hug and Derek shook his hand. Hardy saluted them and left.

Then, Nova turned to Derek and said, "There's things I have to do and I have some work on the bridge, as well as checking on the kids. See you in a few minutes on the Bridge."

"Thank you, Nova," Derek said. He hugged her, kissed her, and then she stepped back, holding her papers, saluted him, and waited for his return salute, which came a moment later.

Then, Nova smiled and left, her high-heeled sandals slapping rythymically against the deck as she left.

Derek turned to the window and looked out at the sea as he leaned against the rail. He thought, _Have we seen the last of Ibn Zoltar yet? Really? Is this the end of this quest? Or the beginning?_

Sandor looked at Wildstar and said, "Derek, how bad is it hurting?"

Derek looked at him and said, "It's hurting somewhat. I've been worse."

"Can I tell you something, between you and I, Derek?" asked Sandor.

"Shoot it at me, Steve," said Derek with a sigh.

"Derek, you look like shit. I can see your cheekbones, and you're getting circles under your eyes. Nova doesn't look good, either. Is everything all right with you two?"

Derek grinned a little and thought_, If you could have been in that cabin a few hours ago….you'd see that __nothing __is wrong between us…it's…_

"We're fine," said Derek. "That battle just wore on us. And the news that the Sun may take a few years to calm down. Damn those Bolars. You know, little Ariel agreed with us last night that all the Bolars should die? That's a scary and somewhat oversophisticated thought for someone just going on a year old."

"Derek, in case no one has noticed, Alex and Ariel are remarkable kids, but Ariel is the more remarkable of the two of them. Her eyes are always open, she's witty…when have you ever heard a witty toddler before?"

"When she tries to explain why she just drew on the bulkhead with crayons. '_Mommy, I was creating Impressionism…_'" she said the other day.

Sandor whistled. "Well, you and Nova are both leaders in your field and geniuses, even though Nova seems to be the most aware of the two of you, no offense. It only stands to reason that Ariel would take after…her very special, brave, smart, witty mother. You know her, Derek. She used to be younger…"

"So did I," chuckled Derek.

"Younger, more naïve…and then, she turned on the Cosmo-DNA, and fell into that coma and came back from what was supposed to be a near-certain death from that radioactive gas. How do we know what really happened then, Wildstar? Nova is a living, walking miracle like Mark Venture. And she's been touched by all sorts of things over the years. And, tell me something. This is just a rumor…it's been whispered about….has she run into Ekogaru's spirit since he died?"

"You know she has," said Derek.

"This is an even stranger rumor, Captain. Is there any truth to the rumor that Ekogaru is for some reason scared shitless of Nova?"

Derek stood in silence. Then, he said, "There is some truth to that. But no one knows why. I asked Sasha about it one day, you know. She just smiled and told me there is something very special about her Aunt that she does not quite compehend herself….I never knew what she meant by that. Then, I went to see Aliscea. She practically told me to get lost. She said it was not important and Nova is just a very mundane lady who got lucky a few times."

"Do you believe that?" huffed Steve.

"No," said Derek. "I know who I want to ask, though, when we get home; if I can get her away from Alex."

"Starsha?" said Sandor.

Derek nodded.

"Best of luck," said Sandor.

"Thanks."

* * *

**II. OF GAMILON AND ISLANDS…**

**The Sanzar System**

**Planet Gamilon**

**August 21, 2208**

**1210 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

* * *

**An Excerpt from the book: _Planetary Geology and Physics: A General Reader's Look: _By Commander Stephen Sandor, PhD, MS. **

**Released 2209 by Hyperion Press. **

_The Sanzar System is one of the most unusual star systems in the known universe._

_The Sanzar System has an amazing fifteen planets. Of these fifteen planets, nine are rocky, three are gas giants, and the remaining three are ice-rock dwarf worlds. The system holds two asteroid belts; one between Sanzar VI and the binary planetary system of Sanzar VII; Planet Iscandar, and Sanzar VIII; Planet Gamilon. The other asteroid belt is between Sanzar XIV and XV and it is extremely dangerous to navigate due to the fact that it is tilted upward from the ecliptic and contains many moderate-sized and fast moving objects. Of course, two of these planets, Gamilon and Iscandar, are inhabitable worlds for carbon-based life forms; according to Gamilon and Iscandarian research, other forms of life based upon other elements exist on some of the other worlds under unique, strange ecosystems. The star of Sanzar is a Class G1 Yellow Dwarf, on the main sequence._

_At the current time, Gamilon is a rocky world within the habitable zone of Sanzar. Previously in its history, it was violently geologically active. The unusual, columnar craton structure caused there to be not one, but two crusts to the planet's surface. The outermost crust had light vegetation and a weaker atmosphere and gravity, and could not sustain city structures as a result. The inner crust was subject to continual tectonic and volcanic activity in many areas, causing many of the lifeforms to adapt to living on the underside of the outer crust. Likewise, much of the infrastructure and buildings of the inhabitants had to be suspended from the crustal 'ceiling'. The continual volcanic activity caused the seas on the planet to become extremely acidic Toward the end of what is now called the First Biosphere, the seas were uninhabitable to all life-forms save for certain extremophilic microbes, such as the sort of tube worms found to exist in thermal vents in the late 20th Century through the research of the Woods Hole Biological Institute._

_In its history, Gamilon has been devastated by more than one conflict. One of the most significant of these actually brought about the end of the First Biosphere; the war between Gamilon and Terra came to a head when a Terran space-battleship was forced to submerge into the largest of the hydrosulfuric acid seas. The bringer of Gamilon's doom, the space battleship Argo, rebuilt from the hulk and metal of the ancient Japanese Imperial Navy Battleship Yamato had no alternative other than to target the base of one of the largest mantle-plume volcanoes and fire its Wave Motion Gun. The result was a catastrophic flood of basalt that caused the outer crust to collapse in many places, and also completely liqueied most of the tectonic plating of the inner crust. The end result was that Gamilon was no longer able to sustain life and had to be abandoned by what few inhabitants survived this mega-disaster._

_In recent years, the Dark Lord Ekogaru targeted the Planet Gamilon because of the resources in sulfur and an element called Gamalashmium. He used his massive Star Fortress' weaponry to liquefy the entirety of the planetary surface to leach out both the Gamalashmium and the sulfur, leaving behind a far more stable crustal structure. He also began the process of terraforming the planet to become his base, but was driven from the system. Gamilon scientists returned and seeded the 'reborn' Gamilon with what native species remained, filling in gaps in the food chain by introducing carefully-researched species from other worlds._

_Because of the pull of Iscandar, Gamilon's binary twin, the tidal and tectonic activity remains extremely high, though not to the degree previously experienced. Tides are measured in a scale of many meters, and inhabited areas along the coastlines have to maintain massive seawalls to protect against these, storm surges and the not-infrequent tsunamis that result from suboceanic temblor activity. The tidal forces exerted by Iscandar, the level of axial tilt and the proximity to the stellar primary result in a lack of persistant polar ice. Ekogaru's crustal melting process resulted in a greater oblation of the shape of Gamilon. The result of this is an extreme variation in climate. The northern and southern temperate areas can be quite cold, with an average temperature similar to Canada or Russia, while the equatorial areas can experience temperatures up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, with the air at full saturation. The equatorial region also is subject to frequent and violent cyclonic storm activity, in which the wind speed can reach 350 kilometers per hour, with a storm surge of up to fifty meters._

_Despite the challenges posed by the new biosphere, resettlement of Gamilon is occurring at a steady pace as survivors of the Gamilon/Galman race head in from the outlying regions of the Gamilon Empire…._

* * *

The _Argo_ had just landed not long beforehand.

Sandor was looking for Commodore Wildstar.

Finally, Steve caught up to Derek in Sickbay.

Doctor Sane, while working on one patient (while hitting his bottle of sake) said, "Oh! Wildstar! He's in exam room number two with Nova, getting that arm looked at!"

"Thanks," said Steve.

Sandor tapped at the door, and said, "This is Sandor. Can I come in?"

"Yes, you can," Nova said. "I'm almost done with Derek now."

Steve came in, finding a tired-looking Derek sitting bare-chested in a fresh pair of uniform pants and dress boots; his blue peacoat tossed off to the side, while Nova sat there in her Medical whites working on Derek's arm.

"How is he healing up, Nova?"

"Getting there," Nova said as she worked on his dressing.

"Have you turned the _Argo_ over to the dockmaster yet?" said Derek.

"I'm doing so now," Sandor replied. "Of course, I am staying on board to do the work."

"Diane's okay with that, right?" Derek said.

Steve laughed. "Given that she will be helping me, yes…"

Nova looked at Derek and gave his arm a pat when the dressing was finished. "We're done now…"

"Our next stop will be Earth Defense Headquarters," Derek said. "Nova and I have to report to the Defense Council," he said as he put on his peacoat and a white ascot. Nova closed up her lab coat a little, letting her red minidress collar show.

Alex and Ariel came running up a moment later behind Jonathan. Jonathan had on his JSCC uniform, while little Alex still wore his sailor top, navy blue shorts, and went barefoot, while Ariel had on her white and pink sailor top and pink sailor skirt and was also barefoot, with her hair still in its ponytail. Both moppets looked simply _adorable_. She came up to her parents (while Alex was engaged in a "boxing" match with his big brother Jonathan) and popped a little salute. "Daddy! Mommy! When can I be a Communicated Officer?"

"Communicated?" laughed Sandor.

"She means 'Commissioned', Steve!" Derek said with a laugh. "What do you want to do, honey?"

"Leave the ship. But I wanna show Sandor here I can count! Mommy! TOES!" she barked.

Nova giggled and kicked off her sandals. Then, she put up one of her bare feet on Derek's lap and said, "Show Uncle Stephen how far you can count."

Ariel stood up in her little bare feet, grabbed her mother's toes and said, "One! Two! Twee! Fo! GOOGLEPLEX!" she squealed.

"Googleplex?" said Doctor Sane with a laugh.

"A mathematical concept….sort of, that covers all the other known natural numbers," said Sandor. "Ariel, how did you learn that?"

"Mommy showed me at bath and boobie time the other day!" Ariel said.

"Bath and boobie time?" said Diane Sandor as she came in and gave Sandor a hug from behind. She was in her full uniform, since she would be doing duty aboard the ship.

Nova said, "Yes, Diane, like you saw the other day a while ago in Sickbay…me…little tub, sponge, bare Ariel, bare Alex, bare Mommy," Nova said as she put her shoes back on. "Ariel, tell Auntie Diane what you think of her hair?"

"Pwetty, but Mommy's is prettier!" said Ariel. "Mommy, what does 'using eggbeater on your hair' mean?"

"It means it's messy," said Nova.

Alex stomped up to Diane and looked hard at her. "Yes?" Diane said with a smile.

"Auntie Diane, you use an eggbeater ON YOUR HAIR!" he screeched.

"I do not!" said Diane.

"Alexander, that was nasty!" said Nova. "Apologize to Auntie Diane."

"Me sorry you have stupid hair," said Alex as Diane wasn't sure whether to hit the kid or to laugh. Nova solved the problem by scooping up Alex, dragging him onto her lap, pulling down his shorts, and giving him a quick spanking of two slaps on his bare tush. Alex began to cry and screech. Nova then pulled up his shorts while Derek snapped, "Now go apologize to Auntie Diane, bow, and MEAN it!"

"Yes, Mommy, yessir, DADDY!" said Alex. He ran up to Diane, bowed in the Japanese fashion, and said, "I am so sorry this time! MEAN IT!"

"Okay, that's fine," said Diane. "Nova, where does he pick up these things?"

"Sometimes, I have no idea," Nova said as Alex blew raspberries at her and began to run around Sickbay, giggling. Nova rolled up her eyes and took off to catch him.

Derek said, "Here we go again. We'll get off the ship. Eventually."

* * *

Zoltar's ship was in trouble.

It was damaged. Very badly damaged.

Zoltar's pilot stood up and reported to him. "Sir, the time warp drive computer is off-line, and will probably remain so in the near future."

""You idiots _can't _fix it?" Zoltar snapped. He coughed. The wounds he had received from the fights on Earth a few days ago were healing with his mutant biology and rapid healing abilities, but some of them still troubled him. _The aches. The coughs. Those damn idiot insect Earthlings, _he thought. _But I have survived what would have killed a lesser being! I am far superior to them. Thank the Luminous One, I am over One Hundred and Eighty Years old, and I shall live forever. Someday, I shall be the master of this Galactic Group. Then, the Leader of the Gamilon Empire, so-called, which was already defeated once by a rusty old boat…shall bow…to ME! And I wil make sure that rusty old Earth tub made from the __Yamato__ is scrapped when I become Master of Earth!_

"No, Lord Zoltar," said the pilot, a bearded man in a two-toned blue Spectran junior officer's uniform as he bowed. "We are limited to sub-light flight for now. And this is a _huge_ star system."

"I do not need your excuses, Freca! I want answers!" barked Zoltar.

"We're being tracked," said another one of Zoltar's men, a sensor operator known as Tolnak. Tolnak wore the usual Spectran soldier's uniform of two-toned green, with a demon's head mask, trimmed with fangs and long hair.

"How many intercepts?" said Zoltar.

"Three. A fast, small vessel…and two Gamilon destroyers!"

"What?" said Zoltar. "Full speed, Freca! Mikla, you idiot! Get the warp computer running! Pull all the cursed overrides!" Zoltar screamed.

"Trying, sir," said Milka as he worked furiously on the computer.

* * *

On the _Lady Katrina_, Haruna Tsukikage was running Communications while Katrina herself worked the helm under the guidance of Raful. Foxy was nervous; he was stalking the cockpit eating a bag of Planters' Dry Roasted Peanuts and licking up the salt and spices like a madman while Raful ran back and forth, looking at the sensors and other positions in the yacht's cockpit.

"Got the bastard!" sang Raful with an evil smile on his face. "Katrina, fly us to this point, WQX-22 by RD12 at full intercept speed. Haruna, is your daughter still in the upper turret?"

"She is…and Yuri says she's ready to start blasting at that goon when we're in range, Mister Raful," said Haruna. "Sir, we're getting a hail from the Gamilons."

Raful looked back at Foxy, who nodded as he mumbled, "Put them on video," while he chewed on his nuts. "I'll talk to them soon as I swallow these."

"Aye, sir," said Raful.

A moment later, the face of Captain Havla appeared on the screen. "I note that your pennant signal, unknown ship, states that you are a private vessel of Terran registry. What are you doing in the Sanzar System? Have you a warrant to be here and on this course? It is a restricted area! Heave to at once!"

"My ship is not unknown to Lord Admiral Alex Wildstar of Iscandar, and it is definitely known to her Ladyship Astrena. I am Kazuo Foxworth-Savela, and this vessel is the space privateer _Lady Katrina_. I have leave to be here under Terran Letters of Marque and also under Pellian Letters of Marque. This vessel is also considered an auxiliary vessel of the Pellian Royal Fleet. My Second Officer, Katrina Foxworth-Savela, is a Pellian Lieutenant and special agent on detached duty to Earth. I'm sure you don't want to fuck up relations with your Empress, nor with Earth, so if you'll just shut your trap, and either let us catch that Spectran ship or lend us a hand like a good little Blue Nazi, it would be appreciated,"

"You are an idiot!" barked Havla. "Leader Desslok would be most offended by how you speak of the glorious Gamilon-Galman Empire! I don't care if you're Terran, Pellian, or whatever, you are in the way here."

"I talked to Desslok a few days ago, and he's cool with my bein' here," said Foxy as he scooped up another handful of peanuts. "Now, do we help each other, or does Zoltar get away from us because we spent half the morning arguing? I think that would piss off Desslok. Don't you?"

"IF this were not such an urgent situation, I would be reporting your every damn smart word to Desslok right now! I intended to do so later, moron!" snapped Havla. "All right. Upload to me your Letters of Marque and if they check out, you join our task force, and shut the hell up and follow my commands, smart-mouth!"

"Haruna, they are in the main computer, right there," said Raful as he helped Haruna find the files. "Hit that code to upload in _Standla Protokol 5_ to the Gamilons. That is their usual non-confidential data cipher key."

"Right," said Haruna as she sent the Letters of Marque to Havla. Havla went to his comm officers' panel, looked at them, and said, "_Lady Katrina_, you check out as an ally. Captain Kazuo Foxworth-Savela, go to WQX-23 by RD10 at full speed, and help us catch up with this renegade. I hope you're armed?"

Katrina laughed. "Armed? Yes, of course _ve_ are armed! The damage you see on Spectran ship? _We_ caused it! Ve pursued damn _vaaaailnyaka _all the way here from Terra!"

"Not bad, pirate," said Havla with a sneering smile, liking Katrina's use of a scatalogical term in Pellian (it roughly translated to "shitter") as the ships began to consolidate for their pursuit of Zoltar. A member of Havla's crew saluted him and said, "Captain, they should be in range of our weapons in two hours. Boarding party is standing by. We will take Zoltar first."

"Good work," smiled Havla.

* * *

About an hour and a half later, on Earth, Derek and Nova Wildstar were seated before the Earth Defense Council in a meeting….

With Alex and Ariel seated with them!

Under Minister for Defense Ryan Clifford sat in the vacant seat of the recently-murdered Defense Minister Ainsley and he asked, "Commander, before we begin, may we ask the Wildstars we they had to bring their toddlers here this morning?"

A few titters came as Derek said, "Under Minister, we have them here because the Day Care Center is currently closed on this day, which is a Sunday, under the new security regulations that you have set up in the wake of Defense Minister Edward Neil Ainsley's death."

"And you folks feel you can bring just them in here like that?" asked Major Gary Maples as he smiled at the Wildstars. Nova focused hard upon trying to find Ariel's toy, while Derek glared at the Intelligence officer. There was something about Maples that Derek Wildstar, somehow, did _not_ like.

"I have allowed it," said the Commander as he looked at Clifford while Ariel whimpered "where's toy?" in the background.

Nova hastily pulled a hamburger and a Puffy the Snail squeak toy out from a bag she had brought in with her holding Alex and Ariel's leftover Happy Meals from McDonald's. Nova handed it to Ariel, along with the hamburger. Ariel sat back, clenched the edge of the table with her toes like a cute little monkey, and said, "When you guys start talkin?" as she began to eat her hamburger and squeaked her toy snail.

General Margolis just laughed and said, "This is insane, sir! How old is she, Commodore?"

"Pushing a year old," said Derek as Alex made a farting noise and pulled his little sailor shirt up to show his bare chest. "Pull that down," Derek whispered. "Nothing wrong with that, but it may get people upset."

"Itchy, Daddy," said Alex.

"Itchy, Daddy," said Derek as he looked seriously at the Defense Council. "My son Alexander just provided a great lead-in to my discussion," he said as he saluted the Commander. Singleton saluted back as General Stone glared at Derek as he got up and stood behind little Alex's chair. "My son can tell you that it's very hot today. The results of our brief survey of the Sun explain why. Fortunately, it is not as bad as we feared, but it wil be an annoyance we will have to live with. Commander, the results?"

Nova nodded, saluted, and handed Derek a data cartridge from inside her lab coat as she kept an eye on Alex and Ariel. Derek plugged the cartridge into a reader, and a graphic came up on a screen.

The Commander watched Stone glaring at them. He noticed that General Stone's face looked bruised and battered; as if someone had beaten him up. Singleton wondered what had happened to Stone, and why he was shifting around in his chair a lot, as if he had suddenly gotten hemorrhoids. _I will have to ask Stone what is wrong with him after this meeting_, Singleton thought.

"That's the Sun's current energy curve," Derek said. And, this is a picture, taken by one of our scanning satellites near Mercury," said Derek. A moment later, a graphic of the _Argo_ came up on the screen. The Sun looked rather nasty and active behind it.

"What is the current average Earth temperature, projected?" said Science Minsister Palver.

"Yes, we'd _love_ to know," said Maples as he grinned at Nova.

"About a hundred and two Fahrenheit right now," Nova said as she got up and stood beside Derek. "Evidenced by the fact that I am only wearing very light clothing today and that the humidity dewpoint is very high."

"And that Mommie has on only a little cloth over her tushie under her dressie!" sang Ariel as some of the Defense Council members glared at her and others chuckled. "Mommie and Daddy have pretty tushies!" said Ariel as she got up and stood up on her toes. Alex got up, and hid behind the table, popping up again to make a face at the new Surgeon General, Rear Admiral Victoria Burke, MD, a very pretty dark-haired officer with glasses who laughed as she got up to face Alex, who looked at her and said, "You have toes-out shoes on, too! Just like Mommie!"

Admiral Burke smiled and said, "Well, my sandals are dark brown, your mother has white ones on. Do you know your colors, yet?" she said as she got up in her black peacoat and short white skirt to pick Alex up.

"Your coat is black, has red thingies on it," he said as Nova smiled and nodded approval from the background as the Surgeon General carried him back to his chair. Her specialty had been pediatrics, so she was very good with children, and had three of her own, who were around nine or ten.

"That's right," said Admiral Burke as she sat Alex down. "Oh, your little bare feet are so _cute_!" said Admiral Burke as she tickled Alex's toes and made him giggle.

"Madame Surgeon General," huffed General Stone. "Could we stop playing with children who are usually not welcome in here, and get back to the subject matter at hand? And stop playing with his digusting bare feet!"

"This is part of the subject matter at hand, General Stone,"said Burke as Alex gave her a kiss before she tousled his hair and took off. "And, in case you've never had chidren, I recommend that toddlers should be barefoot whenever possible in nice weather in a safe environment that won't hurt their feet. It helps the bones grow right in the developing foot. The warmer temperatures allow children to be more lightly dressed, which is a plus, but we need to make sure everyone can get enough sunscreen to avoid cancers, right?"

"My point exactly, ma'am," Nova said. "I recommend it in my upcoming book."

"Book?" hissed Stone. "You can _write_?"

"Yes," Nova said. "In spite of, to you, the apparent handicap that I happen to have female gonads and like to wear skirts, I _do_ happen to be literate," Nova huffed.

"Let's get on with discussing the Sun," said Margolis.

"Now, for the rest of the results that we have managed to glean from our mission," Derek said as he made some equations appear on the screen.

"Tensor derivatives," Nova said she looked up and noticed the math. "I _like_ tensor derivatives…"

* * *

Zoltar's ship was now in even worse trouble than before.

His vessel was being shot at four ways.

But, even as that happened, he was playing about with a sword and saying, "Do not worry, Freca. We shall be _just fine_."

"But the opposition!" yelled Freca.

"We will win," said Zoltar. "They are _nothing_!"

On one side, there were two Gamilon destroyers; namely, the _Z-643_ and the _Z-210_.

From another angle, the _Lady Katrina_ was shooting at him.

And finally, from another corridor, a crazy person, flying a fighter ship that just warped in.

Zoltar listened with annoyance as Katrina's voice snapped, over the speakers, "I've just fired three missiles at you! Vhy don't you take ze hint and just _surrender?_ Vhy not? You can tell this battle is useless!'

Zoltar looked over at his weapons officer, Galak, and said, "Would you kindly shoot down that _bitch_? I can't capture her, I can't even rape her, and her voice drives me _crazy_!"

"Aye, Lord," said Galak as he locked his missiles on Katrina and fired. She just hit the warp switch and evaded the missiles and warped away.

A moment later, Captain Havla smiled at his men as four more Gamilon destroyers warped in. "Sir," said Havla's comm officer after he listened to some signals. "Captain Tana on the _Z-294_ is closest to the enemy vessel. Give him permission to spearhead the attack?"

"By all means," said Havla.

A moment later, Captain Tana, a strong, bluff Gamilon officer, put up his fist and said, "Aim at and _destroy_ that alien vessel!"

"Yessir!" said his men as they got to work, adjusting their gunhouses and firing on Zoltar's ship.

The first barrage almost hit the Spectran ship and ended Zoltar's miserable story right there, even as Katrina Savela grinned evilly and flew about, ready to warp back in and shoot at Zoltar's cockpit. I can be there in about a minute…and he will never get avay from me, Katrina thought to herself as she worked on coordinates and sent a signal to Haruna, saying, "Mrs. Tskukikage, please tell Foxy I am about to bring home ze bacon, or vatever ze expression is. Even though I detest bacon. Katrina _out_!"

Zoltar just evaded the fleet, as he banged on the back of Mikla's chair. "Did you fix that warp computer yet?"

"I think I have something…we can warp…but….location…?"

"What about _location_?" snapped Zoltar. "Just warp us out of this cursed star system! I'll consult with the Luminous One and get coordinates later!"

The Gamilon fleet locked onto Zoltar's ship and fired once. It took a hit and began to smoke.

They fired again as Tana's crew triangulated on the enemy ship. A shot hit inside the ship, and two members of Zoltar's ten-man crew were killed.

Then, Katrina's vessel warped in.

"Now, I have you," said Katrina as she smiled. "Now…!"

Her fingers tightened on the trigger, and she began to fire….

…just as Zoltar's ship warped away.

"CURSE YOU!" yelled Katrina as she made the Change back to Invidia in her cockpit and took off her helmet and screamed in frustration. "A second earlier and I would have HAD you dead, you…rotten …weird…chamleon…freak!"

* * *

Zoltar's ship emerged from a wild space warp right in an atmosphere, in a thunderstorm.

"Where…where _are_ we?" he gasped as the ship rocked under him.

"By the coordinates, welcome to _Gamilon!_" yelled Galak. "And we are about to crash!"

The vessel roared in, fast, as they flew through the rain, and a lot of palm trees and a beach went by.

Then, a moment later, Zoltar's ship plowed into the ground. A lightning bolt went off.

That ship would never fly anywhere again. It was grounded on Gamilon.

And for now, so was Ibn Zoltar.

* * *

A while later, in the Imperial Palace in Gamilstadt, Desslok's Capital, Desslok splashed in his bath as Talan came in.

"Yes, Talan?" he asked. "What is it?"

"Is Astrena there?"

"No, she is with the nurse and Aisha," Desslok said. "Well, go on, Talan. What _is _it?"

"Leader Desslok, you know that Captain Havla and his men, along with a vessel from Earth known as the _Lady Katrina_, were tracking a Spectran vessel?"

"I am aware of that," said Desslok.

"Sir. We just found out who it is. The terrorist warlord klnown as Ibn Zoltar. And, we picked him up. Coming out of warp, and heading…straight for our Southern Hemisphere, probably to crash-land somewhere near the equator," commented Talan.

"That fool? The _idiot _with the mask and the sword?" Desslok said. "Oh, yes, Astrena and I met him once, in that campaign a few months ago at Zulgadas IV. It turns out he was the power behind the throne of that rebellion against us. The men of his that we captured and put to the Question swore up and down they worked for him personally, and not for the Spectran government, which is the only reason why I have _not_ already…obliterated Spectra with a proton missile," Desslok said. "I would love to have that man in my hands…and…"

Astrena then came in. Naked, and carrying little Aisha as she nursed at her breast. Talan flushed a little as Astrena said, "We have a good chance of finding him, but I'd like the _Argo_ here on Gamilon to assist. If at all possible, Desslok. After all, they have a score against him as great as ours."

"I'll think about that," Desslok said. "Talan, go find out exactly where they are. Report to me later, would you? Irregardless whether you track down live fugitives or dead bodies we can present to Wildstar, Nova and their Doctor Sane in body bags. And I do hope that our beautiful Nibs Nova completes Medical School soon. I don't trust doctors who are always drunk llike their Doctor Sane. Mrs. Wildstar seems as if she will be the better scientist and clinician, somehow."

"Yessir," said Talan as he saluted and left.

* * *

In the meantime, back on Earth, ninety minutes had passed in the Defense Council chambers.

The discussion then turned back to the Sun's effects upon Earth, and its effects upon the children of Earth. Asked for her opinion, Nova said that she did not feel that the effects of the Sun upon children might be that positive.

"You've worked with children a lot?" said Burke.

"I have, as a certified Nurse Practitioner and Midwife as well as an RN," Nova said. "I'm starting Medical School at Central Hospital very soon…I…"

"I do Second Year Pediatrics there, look me up, Commander," said Burke with a smile as she said, "Gentlemen, we have a situation with the Sun where Earth will be suffering some discomfort….Commodore Wildstar, do you think we should reconsider a move to the undergound cities?"

"Only if, I believe, the average temperature goes above, I believe…?" Derek said as he looked at Nova.

"About a hundred and twenty average," Nova said as Ariel got loose again. "_Ariel_!" she said as the little girl took off. "Excuse me!" Nova said with a blush as she kicked off her high heels and ran barefoot across the front of the Defense Council chambers to try to catch up with her barefoot little daughter (the scene of the pretty young mother chasing the giggling moppet looked adorable, but Stone glowered at them) as Derek said, "If the temperature is above 120, I think…uh…consideration of a move back underground is warranted, but not before."

"How long do you anticipate this lasting?" asked a friend of General Stone's named Harrelson.

"The figures indicate three to four years, with a gradual curve in the fourth year," said Derek as the Defense Council buzzed….while Alex again took off and ran up beside Ariel. He stood at the front of the room near a control console and yelled in the mike, "NOW HEAR THIS! ATTENTION ON DECK, YOU POOPYHEADS!" and giggled, imitating his Dad addressing the crew of the _Argo_. He burped into the mike and giggled louder as Nova caught up with him and grabbed his hand while he crossed his eyes and burped again at the Council.

Nova reached for Ariel, but Ariel stuck her tongue out at her mother, being defiant at this point, and she ran for a podium not far from the Commander's place at the table and saw….

BUTTONS!

Lots and lots and lots of pretty, multicolored buttons that looked like a toy computer her parents had gottten her that had lots of pretty buttons that made funny noises, including animal noises.

"Wanna hear the _aminals_!" said Ariel as she climbed up onto the podium. To her parents' despair, Ariel was getting very good at climbing, and had none of her father's fear of heights, and was filled with her mother's near total disregard of high places and speed as she went up the podium and began to press the buttons.

By blind luck, she hit a power button, and then a green button that had a funny backwards-4 symbol on it.

As soon as the backwards-4 symbol was hit, a big screen lit up.

"YAAAAAAY!" yelled Ariel! "MOMMY! DADDY! Look at what I did!"

Nova ran over, and caught Ariel's hand, and as Derek ran up with little Alex, they looked up, aghast….

…at Leader Desslok!

Desslok was on the screen, and he said, "Excuse me, Wildstar. Why did you choose _this_ time to turn on the Hot Line?" he purred. "As you can see….I am…hmmm….rather _indisposed_. So is my Queen."

Desslok was indisposed.

He had been captured with his feet in the edge of his bath, lying back against Astrena.

Desslok's body was still wet.

Out of the bath, of course, he had nothing on.

Neither did Astrena, and neither did Aisha, their baby girl, who was against Astrena nursing at one of her bare breasts.

Astrena's hand had been around Desslok's…member when the screen had come on, but she instead tried to cover his member as Desslok looked out at them and said, "Would you care to explain why you called me at this hour from Earth? Is there a major emergency?" he said as…it looked as if he was blushing for a minute. On Desslok, a flush made him look a little like a blueberry for a moment.

Nova looked up and stammered, "Uh…Desslok…Ariel….buttons…accident…."

At that, little Alex just sat cross-legged on the floor and giggled. "Lookie!" he yelled. "Blue people! Hi, Desswok!"

General Stone said, "My Lord, it's the little girl's fault!" he said as he glared at Ariel. "And the fault of her mother, who can barely control her! She is a very _bad girl_!" he said in a sharp tone as Ariel began to whimper.

Then, Ariel looked up at Aisha and giggled. "Mommie! Look! Pretty blue naked baby!"

"Yes, this is my daughter, Princess Aisha," said Astrena gently. "She's not much bigger than you are, Ariel. And she's drinking her milk from her mother. Do you still drink milk from your Mommy, Ariel?"

Ariel nodded. "We wanna come see you! Wanna play with Aisha!"

Alex yelled up. "Desswok! Knock-knock! Who's there? Banana! Banana is big green like poopy!" Then, he giggled and ran towards his father, yelling about poopy.

"Wanna see Aisha! Wanna see baby now!" yelled Ariel while Alex yelled, "Wanna see blue baby go poopy!"

"Shhh, be quiet, honey," Nova said as she rubbed her nose in Ariel's hair while the Council around her tittered. She heard a few mutters of "How cute!" "Oh, they must be so embarrassed…!"

_We are __sooo__ embarrassed,_ Derek thought as he tried to hold back Alex from either running off to screech at Desslok and tell him more bad giggly nonsense knock-knock jokes…or to drop his shorts and proudly demonstrate to Desslok how he could go pee-pee potty into a flowerpot (as he had done at his grandparents' house!) …or both. _The things those scamps get into! Arrrgh!_

"I believe that could, and _should _be arranged," said Desslok. "I will have need of the _Argo_ on Gamilon soon," Desslok said. "A vessel belonging to the terrorist known as Zoltar has been tracked to the Sanzar System…and has been forced down on Gamilon. I could use their assistance on Gamilon. I do believe that they are alive. I believe that our friend Zoltar can be captured, interrogated, and then brought to justice. If he could be found. Astrena has a _rough_ idea where he is….we just need to pinpoint _precisely_ where he is."

"Yes, and when?" snapped Stone as he rubbed his battered face in a strange fashion. "We just cannot have them running around at this…_man's_ beck and call. We know why!"

"You would deny help to a family man with a young child, Stone?" snapped Doctor Burke while Alex yelled, "BAAABIES!"

"Yes, seeing him like that….he doesn't seem that twisted," said Margolis. "In fact, Lord Desslok, you seem downright sympathetic."

"Nice to know," said Desslok with an ironic grin…as Alex popped away from his father, looked up and Desslok, and started making faces at him.

"Ah, yes," said Desslok. "Astrena, look at the boy. Reminiscent of Dellar at his age?"

"Yes, very," said Astrena with a smile. "Oh, he's so cute…"

"Yes…I believe he is," said Desslok.

"Commander, your decision?" said Derek.

"SHUT UP, you," began Stone as Desslok looked on with annoyance, but Singleton silenced him with a raised hand.

Then, the Commander said, "Stone, _I _am in charge of assigning the Star Force to missions. Not you. Please ignore this man, Leader Desslok. Just one of my staff."

"With all respect, " Desslok said with a bow. "I am already ignoring him. I prefer to speak to you or to my close friends Derek and Nova Wildstar. They are true heroes. _This_ man…" he said as he gestured calmly at Stone. "…is a supernumenary. On Gamilon, I deal with men like him in my own fashion! Commanding General Singleton, I hereby make a request for the _Argo_ to come to Gamilon, since I understand the man you want is somewhere on Gamilon."

"They are leaving for Iscandar for other business in two days," said Singleton.

"If we could work it in for them to stop on Gamilon first, we can work with that, and update them on where Zoltar might be," Desslok said.

"Commodore Wildstar?" said the Commander as Derek came over to his desk with his EDF Captain's cover in his hand. "I leave it up to you."

Derek saluted (noticing Admiral Burke in the background with her short brown hair and aviator glasses) as he said, "Sir, you can count on the Star Force. Leader Desslok, expect us in six days," Derek said. "It would be sooner, since we can continuously warp to Iscandar in four days now, but we are escorting my brother and Queen Starsha back home to Iscandar, as you know, and we are committed already to that mission and to leaving when they leave. At any rate, the _Argo_ is being repaired, and she will be ready to cast off again in two days, and then, we shall be on our way."

Desslok smiled and said, "Commodore, I look forward to your arrival, and shall pray for a safe journey!"

"Bye-bye!" screeched Ariel as she jumped up and down on her little toes. "Bye-bye, Uncle Desslok!"

"Have a good trip, Ariel," said Desslok with a smile, hiding his embarrassment to talk to the little toddler. _She reminds me a bit of Dellar at that age_, he thought. "Please look after your father and mother and make sure they get here safely. It is _very_ important," Desslok said. Then, the screen went black.

"I have to help get you to Gamilon, Mommy," said Ariel as she hugged Nova and Nova smiled and hugged her back.

"Yes, I know," said Nova. "Isn't that great?" Nova said as she picked up Ariel.

"Commander, I think it's an _outrage_!" yelled Stone.

"Stone, I gave Wildstar his orders, and you have nothing further to say in the matter!" said the Commander. "Return to your seat so we can continue this meeting."

"It's not that, sir, it's this little impudent BRAT!" yelled Stone almost in Ariel's face with a roar that made Nova shut her eyes and shrink back. Then, Ariel began to whimper, and then she began to scream in poor Nova's arms as Stone yelled at her, "You a rotten little girl and your mother is _useless!_ You should be spanked, and often!" yelled Stone as Ariel's eyes went wide and she began to cry as Nova tried to comfort her.

Then, Stone yelled, "YOU ARE A HORRID LITTLE SHIT!" in Ariel's little ear.

At that, Ariel trembled….and, a moment later, Nova's hand, which was partly against the little girl's skirt and partly against her bottom, was fouled with warm liquid as poor little Ariel's bladder let go in fear. Nova stepped back, with outrage on her face, and outrage on Derek's face as Maples got up and ran over to Stone, along with Singleton.

A moment later, as a trembling little Alex clung to his father's leg, Ariel screeched and her bowels let go. Her greenish poop sprayed all over Nova's hand, ran down her little bare legs, and soon fouled Nova's lab coat, dress, and long coltish legs, running down her legs and bare feet down to her toes as Nova pulled a rag out of the pocket of her lab coat and tried to clean her daughter's bottom under her skirt. In the meantime, Maples glared at Stone. Stone fell down gasping on his knees as Maples looked at Wildstar and said, "Sir, I apologize…he's been having…these…fits lately," he said, trying to smooth things over as Ekogaru raged, in his mind, _YOU IDIOT! DO YOU WANT US TO BE DISCOVERED THIS SOON? COUNT YOURSELF LUCKY TO LIVE WHEN I FINISH WITH YOU, FOOL! YOU WILL BE UTTERLY BROKEN TONIGHT!_

"Well, someone get him out of here, and away from my wife and kids!" Derek snapped as Nova glared at Stone as she wiped Ariel. Alex was crying now as Derek reached down and said, "It'll be okay…"

"Mean bad man made Ariel go poopy!" whimpered Alex.

"YOU BE QUIET!" yelled Stone at Alex.

Alex froze, and then, he realized pee was going down his legs as he had just wet his shorts. He hid his face from Stone's against his father's leg, and he began to cry. Derek picked him up and said, "Alex, little guy, what's wrong?"

"Bad man!" cried Alex, pointing at Stone. "Daddy! Wet pants!"

A moment later, Ariel whimpered and cried loudly and reached for Nova's breasts. As she had done before when one of the children had truly screamed for her breasts, Nova then just mercilessly unzipped her minidress, making the Council buzz as she bared her breasts without a care for modesty as Ariel cried and whimpered for her milk. Nova let her latch on as, needing another rag, she reached down and with the same ruthlessless, before Derek could react, Nova then effectively benuded herself by pulling her fundoshi off herself to use it as a rag to clean her baby girl. She glared at Stone as he leered at her semi-nudity for a moment, and then pointedly ignored him as she cooed at Ariel and soothed her as she began to work the child out of her little skirt.

"This session is on recess!" barked Singleton as the Council buzzed.

Doctor Burke ran over to Nova and said, "My Headquarters Liasion Office is just around the corner, Commander. No one is in there. There's a bathroom and sink. You can take Ariel in there and throw this over yourself when you're done,' Burke said as she peeled off her peacoat. "Ariel can just go without clothes after you get her out of those dirty things. C'mon. Commodore, you can meet us in there with Alex as soon as I escort poor Nova out of here." Nova then took off with Burke, holding Ariel and trying to clean and comfort her as she worked on getting the baby girl out of her top.

"I'd like to see Commodore Wildstar for a few minutes, after he helps his wife with his son and daughter," said Singleton.

"Good. I…I Alex just wet himself," Derek said as he pulled down the little boy's shorts. "I will see you shortly, sir, as soon as I help get the kids cleaned up" said Derek as he stepped out with Alex, Nova, Ariel, and Doctor Burke….while Singleton and Maples motioned Stone over.

"General Westin," said Singleton to another man. "Take Stone's seat for the rest of this meeting."

"What?" said Stone.

"You're relieved for now, Stone. You obviously cannot perform your duties in this state. You, Maples, come see me in my office. Now. That is _not _a request."

"Yessir," said Stone.

* * *

Stone stood at attention like a cadet in Singleton's office while Maples explained his problems. Then, Maples said, "Commander, he has been under stress for other reasons. You notice that he looks as if he's been beaten?"

"I noticed that," said Singleton. "Stone, what is _wrong_ with you?"

"Sir….I was arrested…a few days ago, by the SS. They…needed something from me. I was stripped, tortured, and beaten by rogue elements within that organization. They took my wife, too. I saw her tied naked to some kind of…whipping post…while they beat her with a cat o' nine tails. Then, we were separated."

"I rescued him from those men just in time, Commander," purred Maples. "They were some of the same men who were behind the premature arrest and interrogation of Nova Wildstar the other day after Defense Minister Ainsley was killed. Detective Yuri Tsukikage of the EDF Criminal Investigative Division Office showed up with evidence that exonerated Nova before she was to be dragged off to SS Headquarters with Wildstar to be tortured-and possibly executed."

"Good GOD," muttered Singleton. "Thank heavens, at least, that the CID was on the ball. Maples, what happened to those men?"

There was actually a small battle in SS Headquarters. My men and I rescued Stone. We do not know what became of his wife. She is still…,missing, sir. We killed the rebels, sir."

Singleton sighed. "Stone, I understand that you have been under a lot of stress recently, but….what you did to Commander Wildstar and her children today? I do not care how you feel about the Star Force. Badgering innocent children in front of the Defense Council looks _very_ bad, Stone. What you did today was _inexcusable_!"

"Sir, I understand your concerns, but, those damn children practically took over that meeting! We need discipline here in headquarters, and sir, characteristic of the Star Force and their lack of discupline, the Wildstars made a farce of this Council chamber!"

"And what did you do, Stone? You made a farce of things when you decided to the forceful surrogate parent to those children and screamed at them both like that! Man to man, it is a damn good thing that Derek Wildstar did not punch you for that. You may not like this, Stone, but a lot of people have both admiration and sympathy for the Star Force; who have never given up, and always accomplished the impossible and freed the planet from alien domination several times over. Commodore Derek Wildstar is a very popular person, and his wife, Commander Nova Wildstar, is a highly admired woman! Because of all she has done for Earth and all she has suffered, it would be safe to say that most of Earth thinks of Nova Wildstar like a beloved kid sister…or a daughter. She actually receives more fan mail and questions directed to her than the First Lady Mendellsohn herself! And some are even sending fan mail to those two special little toddlers! In case you have not noticed, they are developing quickly in the mental sense, and they might be the first examples of a new humanity due to our involvement with interstellar space and alien cultures! Who knows what those children might become or accomplish in eighteen years?"

"But, sir, discipline!"

"Stone, we have civilians as well as military out there in that Council chamber. Screaming at the children of a highly admired couple like that because they are just being children, and ranting at that poor young woman who was trying to protect her children may have just cost the Earth Defense Forces billions of credits in Parliament. There may be calls for an investigation in Parliament. If there are, I will not cover for you this time, Stone. Therefore, to allow you to get time to rest and heal, to get time to seek psychiatric counseling, and to allow you to think if you want to work for us on this high level, I am suspending you as Chief of Staff for fourteen days, Stone."

"What?" said Stone.

"Count yourself lucky, Stone. I was originally going to discharge you as Chief of Staff! If you don't like those terms, Stone, you can sit down and write me your letter of resignation right now," said Singleton. "Take this offer or leave it. This is the last time I am showing you any leniency, Jackson. And be grateful I am offering you _this_ much consideration. It is only because you have faithfully served me ever since 2197, Stone. Eleven years as Chief of Staff is a long time, Jackson. I hope you understand where we stand with each other."

"Yessir," said Stone.

Singleton then looked at Maples, who looked very ordinary in his crew cut. "I checked your story about the SS through other sources, Major. Excellent work in nipping this in the bud, Gary," said Singleton, calling Maples by his first name for the first time. "I am, therefore, offering you a field promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. Your job is to look after Stone and find out what became of his wife and some of the other SS prisoners not accounted for. Do this right, and you will be standing with me before Parliament in a few days. Along with Wildstar if that Zoltar fellow is dealt with."

"Sir, I thank you for the promotion, and I am very grateful for the confidence you have reposed in me," Maples said.

"See to it that General Stone gets some help," said Singleton. "Jackson, we will be in touch when your fourteen days is up about your reinstatement. Both of you are dismissed."

Stone and Maples saluted and said, "Thank you, sir."

"Colonel," said Singleton. "Please tell Commodore Wildstar he can come in now."

"Yessir," said Maples. "Come on, sir. I'll help you out."

As they left, they found Derek sitting there. Stone glared at Wildstar, who just glared back. Maples defused the situation by saying, "Commodore, the Commanding General is ready to see you now. I'm helping the General home. He has some health concerns. I've also just been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, sir."

"Congratulations, Colonel," Derek said as he shook hands with Maples, almost recoiling because he found Maples' hand to be…somehow…cold. _There's something strange about this man_, thought Derek as Maples smiled at him, and Derek smiled back.

"I hope that your wife and children will be well, sir," said Maples.

"They should be. Nova's a lot tougher than she looks, and so are my son and daughter," said Derek as he looked pointedly at Stone for a moment.

"Do you play golf, sir?" said Maples.

"Not very well. I'm good at soccer and baseball. Nova's learning the eighteen-hole game from Doctor Sane, believe it or not," said Derek.

"Ah…we'll all have to get together on the course someday, sir. My aide, Ensign Valeri Thomas, plays golf, too. She has nice legs in golfing shorts," said Maples with a wink.

"So does Nova," said Derek with a short smile. "We'll talk later, Colonel."

Maples saluted Derek as Wildstar went into the Commander's office.

* * *

In the Commander's office, Derek was called in and he was asked, "Wildstar, is anything else needed for the Star Force for when the _Argo_ takes off again on Tuesday?"

"Nothing sir, except for some replacement parts. Have you contacted the Central Hospital Medical School to let them know that Nova might be starting school late due to orders?"

"I have, and they are most understanding, even though some of her work is being held and other assignments are being sent to her to read on the _Argo_. They told me that they will not be receiving their cadavers until mid-September, by which time, you should all be back home. Are Nova and your chilldren all right? You do not know how ashamed I am of General Stone's actions today…"

"They'll be fine, although Nova would like to go right home today after Admiral Burke puts something on her body to cover her." Derek said this, not feeling he needed to tell the Commander that Nova had asked to be stripped down again in the car on the way home so she could comfort poor little Ariel with her breasts and body warmth, nor did he want to say that Admiral Burke had been forced to give Ariel a pain medication for her ear after Stone had screamed into it.

"That is fine. You two have given your report, and you are excused from the rest of the Council meeting. You're dismissied, Wildstar," said the Commander. After they saluted, the two men shook hands and Singleton said, "Take Nova and those children home. You have two beautiful children, and they amused me today, along with most of the rest of the Council, and those children have two of the planet's most loving and attentive parents looking after them."

"Thank you, sir," said Derek.

"Could you have Nova do us a favor, tomorrow?" Commanding General Singleton asked. "Queen Starsha expressed an interest in seeing some of the sights of the Megalopolis in disguise in civilian wear. She asked to have Nova go with her with a hidden weapon to serve as her security. It should be a short trip, and Nova should be home by lunch. Would you see if she is interested, and, if so, call me later? Starsha would want her at the Embassy at 0900 tomorrow morning…so you would have plenty of time to prepare."

""It sounds fine, sir. I think Nova will consent. She and Starsha are good friends," said Derek, looking at the time: it was about 1300 Hours. "We'll see you later, sir."

Singleton and Wildstar exchanged salutes and parted.

* * *

Upon leaving the Commander's office, Commodore Wildstar tapped at the door of the side office where Nova was and asked, "This is Derek. May I come in?"

"Yes, darling, of course!" Nova said from inside the room.

So, Derek opened the door to the side office from the Defense Council and saw a lovely, comforting sight.

Derek looked up, and found Ariel in her mother's lap, receving her mother Nova's breast as she suckled. Nova and Ariel looked adorable together. Nova and Ariel both went naked but were now also both totally clean.

Alex ran up, squealing, "DADDY!" as he ran up to his father and hugged him. Derek smiled at he looked at his boy, who had also been stripped of all of his clothes.

"Well, dear, I see now _you're_…indisposed," Derek said. "And so are Alex and Ariel. They look so cute…"

Nova blushed and said, "Derek, I couldn't help it. Poot little Ariel wet and pooped all over the lower half of my uniform and their clothes and you know Alex peed his shorts. I ran in here with her wee and liquid poop going down my uniform and legs all the way down to my toes. We all needed an immediate bath, and with few towels around, air-drying is the only way we are going to dry off, and Ariel has not let go of my breasts for the past fifteen minutes…"

"Do you have anything to…wear…Nova?"

"Admiral Burke is in the other office. She's changing out of her blouse, which can go on around me for a covering when we leave the building, Of course, I told you I wanted to go bare in the car. They're going to need baths as soon as they get home, and so will I," Nova said.

"Sure," said Derek as he knelt down and tousled Ariel's hair. "Are you okay, honey?" he asked.

Ariel looked at him and nodded slowly. "Scared," she said after taking her mouth off Nova's breast.

"Of who?" said Derek.

"Poopyhead with the ugly moustache," said Ariel. "He's _mean_!"

"He sure is," said Derek. "Mean old General Stone literally scared the shit out of you, didn't he, Ariel?"

Ariel withdrew her mouth from Nova's nipple and nodded gravely.

A tap came at the door, and Nova and Derek blushed as the Admiral Burke came in. She looked softly at the two cute little toddlers; Ariel was cuddling against her mother, while Alex crawled over, found one of his mother's dangling bare feet, and began to count "One…two…twee.." on Nova's toes while holding his little penis in his hand. Nova put a ladylike hand over her genitals as she said, "I got them cleaned up, and in this humidity…well….they're still hungry…"

"As you requested, here's a spare blouse," said Admiral Burke. Admiral Burke whistled a little near the ear that General Stone had hurt, and Ariel turned her head. "Nice Ammiral," she said as she kissed the Surgeon General of Earth.

"Why did you just want a blouse on, Nova?" said Derek.

"Easier for me to give Alex and Ariel food if they want it like this," Nova said as Admiral Burke helped her put on the long blouse and button it up part of the way, letting her breast stay bare. Burke was a bit taller than Nova, so the blouse almost served like a minidress on Commander Wildstar's more petite frame. "And I wouldn't be leaving here wearing a Rear Admiral's jacket, either. I'd prefer not to wear a flag officer's black coat, if at all possible, until I earn the rank myself, Derek," Nova said as she found her sandals, which Burke had found before, and slipped them onto her feet.

"You're a rising young star in the EDF, Nova," said Burke. "You'll probably have my rank in the next ten or twelve years. Heck, you may be Surgeon General yourself twenty years from now."

"Thank you, ma'am," Nova said.

"And best wishes to both of you on your mission; the kids will love Gamilon and Iscandar," Burke said as Derek picked up the bag that held the soiled clothes that Nova and the children had been wearing. He looped the handles under one arm, and then he picked up Alex, who waved at Admiral Burke and went' "Bye-bye, Amyral!"

"Bye-bye, little one…lots of luck to you," said Burke.

At that, the Wildstars left.

* * *

_**To Be Continued…. **_


	6. Chapter 6

**THE FIRE IN THEIR EYES**

**A VERY Dark Star Blazers fanfic (Rating: Heavy R): THIS TALE IS NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!**

**PART SIX: A FINAL PURSUIT (Conclusion) **

**By Frederick P. "Freddo" Kopetz**

**References to Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato are intended as homages and no infringement is intended. Star Blazers and Space Battleship Yamato are © 2011 by Voyager Entertainment and Engagio Productions. Includes References to _Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman_ (created by Tatsunoko Productions and Sandy Frank Productions) are © 2011 by those production companies, along with references to characters and situations from the works of Stephen King. These are all intended as homages; no infringement is intended.**

**Thanks to "Yuki Wildstar," Gail Kopetz, and Ami Meitsu for ideas contributed to this chapter. **

**Thanks to SAMANTHA NOCERA (aka Steel Hyaena) for ideas contributed to this chapter. Thanks also to ANONYMOUS READER for ideas contributed.**

* * *

**I. A REPORT BACK HOME…..**

**Planet Gamilon**

**Gitranja Island**

**Ibn Zoltar's Ship _Matreaoar_**

**August 20, 2208**

**1048 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

* * *

"**Zoltar!"** snapped the deep, authoritative voice of The Great Spirit of Spectra, also known as The Luminous One. Zoltar could communicate with the strange computer-based spiritual intelligence on a round screen in a small audience chamber in his flagship. "You will report now and explain yourself to me! Why have you crashed on Gamilon? You know you are behind the lines and in enemy territory, you _fool_?"

"Great One, I was chased here by numerous enemy forces. Then, I attempted to perform a time-space warp away from this area, but, instead, I performed a miswarp and warped right into the atmosphere of this cursed planet. We are trying to repair this vessel and get away, and…"

"SILENCE!" snapped the Great Spirit. "I already foresee your vessel shall never fly again. You will not leave Gamilon in the _Matreaoar_. Your Command Ship was sacred. I am _**not pleased**_!"

"Lord, we have been through so much together. As Generalissimo X, you made me what I am long ago, back in Earth's chaotic history. I fought Gatchaman in a war that barely anyone remembers now due to Gamilon and the Comet Empire…Then, you would have left me to die at Cross Karakorum, yet you saved me at the last moment, brought me out of the ruins of Galactor, and we rebuilt the organization on Spectra as the Spectran Imperial forces…and you gave me a new name…."

"….and I have been aided by my associate Ekogaru," mused the Great Spirit. The Luminous One watched Zoltar blanching at that name. "I know you fear Him. I have an understanding with Him so that He will never invade Spectra; in fact, we shall work together, and in our great Master Plan, you and all of your people will someday be as immortal as I, and you shall be our Prophet, O Zoltar. But, you need to be rescued from Gamilon, first, you….idiot. That time will come. Stand fast. Await my signal…"

"How will I know it is you? Lord, the power systems of this ship are failing, and…"

"I will come to you in the means I have used when we have had no communicators, my Prophet," mocked the Great Spirit. "I will come to you…in a dream. Hold fast. If you do nothing foolish, and do not incur my wrath, we shall meet again…if you do arouse my anger…."

"Lord?" whined Zoltar.

"Arouse my anger, and I will leave you to die. As I should have left you to die at Cross Karakorum, _**Katze**_," hissed The Luminous One.

The strange fiery-head image of the Great Spirit faded, as Zoltar knelt on the deck whining.

* * *

**II. THE AGONY OF DEFEAT…**

_**The Lady Katrina**_

**The Vicinity of Planet Gamilon**

**August 20, 2208**

**1100 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

* * *

"They got away from us," sobbed Katrina Savela as she lay on the bed she shared with Foxy in their cabin on the Lady Katrina. "I did all I could, and _vat_? They got away! What kind of pilot am I?"

"Katrina," said Foxy as he held her. He had put on an absurd outfit before; a strange variation of a Pellian Admiral's dress whites he had made for himself, worn with a crazy mixture of his old EDF decorations and a decoration or two that he and Katrina had earned on missions in service of the Pellian Race.

Katrina, on the other hand, wore what she had changed into after the battle; a white blouse, black skirt and slip, black sandals. She had tried to look stunning for breakfast, but given that the atmosphere of the Lady Katrina that morning was like the atmosphere of a wake, or, as Katrina had put it "The atmosphere of mourning and anger ve would have aboard a ship someday if that accursed demon Ekogaru killed one of my best friends"

Katrina had barely talked to anyone. Yuri had sat moping in the nice suit and sandals she had worn to breakfast on this bizarre vessel, and her mother Haruna had tried to bring up spirits on the ship, and Foxy had tried a few jokes until Raful yelled and him and told him to, bluntly, "SHUT THE FUCK UP, Kazuo!"

Foxy had then stormed off to their room, and Katrina had followed him a few minutes later.

Katrina held Foxy as she said, "I am worthless! We lost the battle. And it's my fault! I am so rusty in a fighter…"

"Hey, Nova took you up for lessons a few weeks ago…."

"Only ven ve both got the idea to have me fly my Pellian ship, the one I am most used to. I am most used to Cometine Scorpion, but I cannot very well tell Nova who I am and ask her to use backdoor diplomacy with Desslok and Radnar to get me a Scorpion, can ve? As it is, I nearly crashed their Cosmo Tiger II. Only Nova taking over the flight from the back seat saved our lives." Katrina remembered that flight well. Nova had been livid with Katrina then about her flying ability in a Tiger (even though she had taken some Ground School courses and had gone up a few times with Nova, Derek, and Hardy as an Alliance Visiting Officer Pilot) and Katrina remembered that Nova had…wet herself…trying to get them out of a spin that would have been fatal if Nova hadn't have been a recon-fighter pilot with nearly a thousand flight hours under her belt since 2199, nearly as much as their friends Cory Conroy and Deke Wakefield. Katrina had not let Nova known that she had…crapped herself during that disastrous flight.

"What about you and the Dark Nebulans? Aren't you the Ruling Princess, undercover, of House Dezaria?" asked Foxy.

"The last time I tried to contact zem, zey barely spoke to me. And they were rude. Something about '_we are cyborgs, what are you?_' they said. They keep that up, I will have to make a report to Father. And you know how I hate doing that. It would make me look like an incompetent in his eyes!"

"You'd better let Zordar know, and soon," whispered Foxy. "I mean, if they go to Ekogaru's side or something…"

Katrina shivered at that one. But, she accepted Foxy's kisses as he kissed her nose and then kissed her mouth. "I like when you do that…"

"Do what?"

"Seduce me….close the curtains…"

"No, I want to see the stars this time when we make love," whispered Foxy, who was growing arouse as Katrina touched him. He quickly unbuttoned her blouse, and threw it on the bed, playing with her breasts as she lay there clad in her bra, skirt, slip, and sandals, until she kicked off one shoe and left it on the bed.

Foxy got Katrina's bra off, next, playing with her breasts again, stopping to suck her nipples as he got her out of her skirt, and then, he helped her undo her slip.

Then, he pulled down her panties, and he kissed his way down Katrina's body, all the way down…there….finally showering her with intimate kisses.

Katrina arched her back, and moaned, half-naked, still in her slip, panties, and one sandal, as Foxy tore his pants open. They paused only long enough for Katrina to roll over and use her toes to pull her panties off. She then let Foxy strip her of her slip and remaining sandal as she pleaded to be made naked in his arms.

When she was made bare in his arms, Foxy pulled her on top of him, and said, "I want you…now!"

"I vant you, too…let me strip you of that absurd outfit!"

"I will, Katrina…get to it…."

As he kissed her like mad, Katrina stripped Foxy of his clothes, throwing them onto the deck in a heap.

Then, the kisses turned into full, frank lovemaking which melted into intercourse as Foxy took Katrina, throwing her onto her back and beginning to thrust into her as she moaned and writhed. "Yes, oh, Foxy…YES! Goddess…Yes! Yes! Do not stop! Please take me…and…."

Katrina's toes curled with utter pleasure as Foxy let loose with all of his frustrations, sense of loss, and anger over the way the battle had gone, and he channeled it into making love to his wife.

And, Katrina received the same from him…a release of pain, a release of a sense of frustration…joy…happiness…affection….

….followed by utter, naked rapture as their bodies drew closer and closer to the explosive end of their happy, passionate dance.

Katrina just screamed as Foxy kissed her and thrusted inside her, not caring about the noise, not caring about who heard as she yelled, "FOXY! KAZUO! YESSSS!"

Then, he gasped, and yelled "KATRINA! AISURU!"

He reached his climax first, followed by Katrina.

Then, spent, they lay there, stroking each other, laughing, but then, Katrina's laughter turned to tears.

Foxy did all he could to comfort her…which was, to hold her…

..and to start touching her again…..

* * *

**III. DEREK AND NOVA'S SWEET**

**HOT HOMECOMING**

**Planet Earth**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**The Wildstar Residence**

**August 20, 2208**

**1122 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

* * *

When they got home, the Wildstars found that the house was very, very hot again.

"Oh, no, Derek," Nova said as she stepped into the house in the nude except for her sandals, since she had taken off her borrowed blouse in the car, and had an equally bare Alex in her arms suckling at her breast as they went inside the house.. "It's like a _furnace _in here! It's actually cooler outside! WHEW! What happened to the air conditioning?"

"I have no idea, but I'll find out," he said as he opened windows and shades, and rapidly took off his own clothes and threw them into a pile.

Derek dressed himself in only a fundoshi, and he heard Nova running a bath in the bathroom, and heard Alex and Ariel giggling as they ran around in their bare skin. Jonathan would not be back home until tomorrow, since his JSCC unit had kept him aboard the _Argo_ to assist in the repairs, even though Derek and Nova would call Jonathan later on.

Derek ran down into the stifling basement barefoot and he opened up the door to the small room where their heating and A/C equipment was. Derek opened a cover on the air conditioning unit and cursed as he said, "Damn thing needs a new belt. It broke!"

Sighing, Derek ran upstairs again to the bathroom, and he said, "Nova, I have to put on a pair of shorts and sandals and go out to the hardware store. The air conditioning unit needs a new belt. That's why it's so damn hot in here!"

"I see," Nova said. "Well, I'll cool the kids and myself down in the bath," she said as Derek looked in. Nova was sitting on a bath stool, and she played with Alex as she wetted him down with a spray while Ariel kept on putting her hands in the water to wash herself. "After that, it'll be nap time. I'll let them sleep on the spare futon in the living room. You'll probably find me in my home office by the window on the second floor when you get back, Derek…if I'm not still in the tub, that is."

"See you in a bit, Nova," Derek said.

* * *

Derek ran his errand and came back a few minutes later with the belt for the air conditioning unit. He got into the house, and called after Nova. He heard her soft voice saying, "In here!" at last as he walked past her home office after checking on Alex and Ariel, who were asleep for their afternoon nap.

"Shall I come in?" Derek said to the closed door.

"Not yet," Nova said. "Go downstairs and replace that belt…then come back up here, honey."

So, Derek Wildstar did so, getting tools, and shedding his shorts as he worked in nothing but his fundoshi as he crawled about on an old rug to replace the belt in the central air conditioning unit. When he was done, and he closed everything up, and turned on the power, the unit began to purr like a kitten and he felt cold air coming out of the vents in the house.

Smiling at himself for how…cool he was….Derek went into the bedroom, and smiled at Alex and Ariel as both they lay there, clean, naked, and asleep.

Then, he went up to the home office and tapped on the door. "Nova. All done. Can I come in now?"

"You sure can," she said gently.

Derek opened the door….and found an utterly enchanting sight.

Nova was sitting in her office chair with the second-floor window open, her bare feet up on the cushion as she curled her toes.

Nova was sort of working on her child care book….with her eyes half-closed, and then entirely closed, as she fantasized about Derek doing wonderful things to her. The chapter she was working on involved post-partum intimacy, and the subject matter, illustrated by an adorable picture of Derek making love to her taken by her mother, had combined with the heat to drive her to explore herself. It was easy; Nova was still totally and exquisitely nude in the sticky heat, and she had a hand in her own cookie jar as she gasped a little and touched herself. In the heat, she had brought herself to orgasm on her home office chair as blamelessly as a schoolgirl a few minutes ago.

Derek loved seeing his wife in the nude and passionate like this. Her nipples were hard as rocks. She was covered with a light sheen of sweat, and her rosette was very, very dewy, and also on view without an ounce of shame, since Nova sat there moaning softly with her legs spread as she explored herself.

Derek felt his shorts growing very tight. He whispered, "Nova, you look _adorable_ like that…"

Nova opened her eyes, blushing a little that Derek had found her doing this. However, she knew that he loved to catch her like this, being naughty, in just her skin. "Thank you, Derek," she whispered. "Come here…I was looking at this picture of us in my book..and I want you…"

The young mother smiled as Derek came up, kissed her on the neck, and then kissed his way down her collarbone to one of her nipples as he quickly stripped himself nude in the heat.

Derek played with her breasts, kissing them, and suckling at them, and then he kissed his way down to the center of her as the lovemaking picture turned to a sexy reality for Nova as he made love to her with his tongue and mouth. Nova's toes curled up as Derek brought her to a beautiful climax, her second of this session,

Then, Derek helped Nova stand up.

Derek got behind her, kissed her, and then put his hands on her breasts as he hugged her and entered her wet, engorged rosette from behind.

"Oh my God, _yes_," Nova moaned as she received Derek's gift and rode him.

Nova embraced him, pulling him closer as she went up on her toes as the lovemaking continued.

Nova felt like her entire body was like a single massive pleasure center, which was a good thing.

Derek felt the love his wife had for him, and he shook with sheer joy while their act of sweet love went on and on.

Finally, when he could hold back no longer, Derek exploded inside Nova with an exquisite sigh.

As his body was finishing its climax, Nova hit the same peak of pleasure, and her eyes closed and her head rolled around as she came to climax with her lover inside her and his hands on her breasts.

It was good, it was loving, it was holy, sanctified pleasure between husband and wife.

They fell together into a heap, and Derek lay on the floor calling Nova sweet things, and she did the same with him for a while.

Derek then tenderly carried Nova to the bathroom in his arms. They would wash up there.

As she was being carried in Derek's arms, lazily kicking her legs, Nova said, "I kept a roast in the freezer for today. Want me to make it?"

"Sure," said Derek. "What's for dessert?"

"Apple pie," Nova said. "Homemade by Mrs. Wildstar, to be served to the family _ala mode_, while I have on nothing but an apron."

"The kids will love that," Derek said.

"And Derek?"

"_He_ loves it. Especially the part about the near-naked chef."

Nova kissed him. "I thought you would like that, Derek." Nova then raised her foot and looked down at her toes. "Do you think I need a pedicure, Derek?"

"It would look good," said Derek.

"I'll take Starsha to the spa tomorrow," Nova said. "I need my nails done; so does Starsha, and…well, my legs could stand another treatment, I need a massage, and a bikini area treatment…for the beach on Iscandar when we get there."

"Uh, lately, when we've been on Iscandar, you have not been wearing bikinis there on the beach. In fact, more often than not, you've just gone naked on the beaches…."

"With that part of me exposed," Nova said with a blush. "It _needs_ to look good, yes?"

"It looks good _now_," said Derek with a leer.

"You know what I mean," Nova teased. "Let's get in the bath…"

"Okay."

* * *

On the _Lady Katrina_, Katrina Savela (who had remembered, luckily, to Change again; she had become Invidia in Foxy's arms during their continued lovemaking earlier) found herself invited into Yuri Tsukikage's cabin on board ship prior to her making a visit to the ship's bath. The ship was in orbit of Gamilon, and it was now late afternoon.

Yuri was sitting on her bunk taking off the suit she had worn on board ship that day when Katrina stuck her head in her room.

"Oh! Katrina! What do you want?"

"To talk about today's battle," said Katrina. "Why could we not get him?"

"Bad luck…bad choices," sighed Yuri as she took her blouse off. Then, she stood up, took off the rest of her clothes, and wrapped a towel around herself. "Join me in a bath, Katrina. We'll talk there."

Katrina sighed to herself, thinking, _Do we have to?_ Still, she found herself nodding and saying. "Fine. Just let me go into the cabin with Foxy and get undressed there."

"Make sure you're not in there with Foxy," teased Yuri. "Last time that happened, earlier, we did not see you for three hours. I wonder what you were doing?"

"Vat it was none of your business!" snapped Katrina, shivering as she thought of how Foxy had made her feel before.

"Come on, now, why be so coy?" teased Yuri. "My mom and I always hear you two, you know."

"YOU DO NOT!" said Katrina.

"We do so," giggled Yuri.

"DO NOT!" barked Katrina. "WE do not make that much NOISE!"

"You do and you know it," said Yuri. "We hear you saying his name...we hear him, we hear you! You're noisy!"

Katrina shook her head and said, "No comment."

* * *

**IV. STRANGE DAYS, STRANGE NIGHTS…**

**Planet Earth**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**August 21, 2208**

**0130 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

* * *

In the Tokyo Megalopolis, a violent thunderstorm hit that evening.

On the _Argo_, some openings in the gun turrets had to be hastily patched with tarpaulins as the repair work continued on a 24-hour, three shift basis, with civilian crews assisting the Mechanical and Engineering crews. Even the JSCC cadets were put to work hauling parts, wires, cables, and bringing food to the men and women who were working hard on the ship. Jonathan spent much of the night up bringing food and coffee to the work crews.

At the nearby fighter base, Hardy and Deke Wakefield ran around in rain gear, making sure that the Tigers were tied down in their landing spots.

At the Wildstar home, a frightened Alex and Ariel had climbed into bed with their parents, and they were cuddling up to them when the doorbell rang.

"What the?" said Derek.

"Derek, it's 0200 in the morning on the twenty-second," Nova said as Alex cuddled up to her nude body and sought her breast. "There, sweetheart, don't be scared…Mommy is here," Nova cooed as a burst of thunder hit outside and the toddlers trembled at the sound.

The doorbell rang again. "Nova, stay here with the kids…I'll go to the nearest intercom screen and answer that!"

The doorbell ringing was coming from a security gate near the street. The Wildstars' property was more or less surrounded by a security wall and hedge, and from the street, to get in, one had to either have an access card or transponder (which Derek and Nova had in their cars) or one had to know the keypad code or be admitted from inside the main house. Derek threw a kimono around himself and flipped on the screen. "Yes?" he snapped.

"Commodore…I…I…need…your help," gasped the person on the other side of the comm system.

Derek was shocked to see that it was General Stone!

From what he could see of Stone, he had on no shirt, and his pants were tattered. He was barefoot, and he held a gift-wrapped box in his hands. Much was washed away by the rain, but he was bruised and bleeding from several fresh wounds to his face.

Nova noticed, and she started, throwing a blanket around her lower body as she stepped up with Alex in her arms at her breast. "General!" Nova said. "Derek, he's _hurt_!"

"What happened to _you,_ Stone?" Derek barked through the intercom system as another burst of lightning hit.

"I…I was arrested by the SS again…they beat me…"

"Maybe you _deserved_ it," Nova huffed.

"And…they killed Chelsea….my wife…I'm carrying her ashes in a box!" yelled Stone. "My back has been shredded with a whip, and they took my car! Damnit, I've been put on suspension because of what I did to your kids today, for which I am truly sorry! I lost it in there, and I shouldn't have! My back is on fire! Nova's damn near a doctor! I need emergency medical treatment from her! Please help me!" he yelled.

Nova looked at Derek with a searching look on her face. Derek looked at her and nodded back.

"Stone, we're letting you in to look at you and put some clothes on you and give you some brandy and carfare," snapped Commodore Wildstar. "If you say BOO to my children or wife, you will have hell to pay!"

The gate clicked and whizzed open.

"You know our house," said Nova. "You've been here once. The front door will be unlocked. Don't you dare try a single trick. I'm going to be armed."

Stone nodded. "Yes, I understand. I'm no danger now."

And he wasn't.

* * *

"What in God's Name happened to _you_, Stone?" Derek said a few minutes later as he sat there in gym shorts and an old-t-shirt.

General Stone was sitting in their living room, sipping on a hot mixture of brandy and tea that Nova had made up. Nova had on a kimono; with a divers' knife in a sheath strapped to one of her bare calves. She worked on Stone's back with tools and antiseptics from her medkit, making Stone wince with every move she made. "Derek, some of these lacerations are almost down to his bones. What did they use on you, General?"

"Cat of Nine tails," gasped Stone. The gift-wrapped box was partially soaked, and had started to come open. It sat on a garbage bag, and some coarse grey powder came out. It was some of Chelsea Stone's ashes.

"Who got you out of there?" said Derek.

"Colonel Maples got to me time with a six-man squad," said Stone, not revealing that Maples, as Ekogaru, was both his tormentor and his "savior". Stone thought, _He is my savior because he let me live. He said the next time I pull something like this…I may NOT survive what he and The Creep will have in store for me. _Flagg had also been there to witness some of his torture before he simply…disappeared right before Stone's eyes as he left on "other business". "Unfortunately, the last I saw of Chelsea…well….she was on a metal autopsy table in there. Dead. Maples retrieved her ashes later after they…cremated her….and there she is!"

"I'm so sorry," Nova said softly as she got a dustpan and brush and tenderly cleaned up Chelsea's ashes and placed them in a large empty black pottery urn that she had purchased and was going to use as a sugar jar. With the mess cleaned up, she returned to work on Stone's shredded back. "Why did they do that?"

"They try to get to you by hurting your family," Stone gasped. "Nova, if they had gotten you to their headquarters that night, you probably would have seen Derek tortured in front of you. Or your poor children."

"How many times did they hit you with that whip?" Nova asked.

"About….thirty times," Stone said. "OW! My back!"

"I have to get in there with the disinfectant," Nova said. "I'm going to dress your wounds the best I can on an emergency basis as a first responder, but I want you to go to Central Hospital. You may need transfusions to combat the blood loss. You will certainly need many more sutures than I can give. I sutured the worst lacerations already with my little emergency kit, and my script over there states I gave you a tetanus booster already. The other shot I gave you was multi-spectrum Amoxicillin Five. You probably have an infection in you already, and the antibiotic will get a head start on it." Nova then shined a light into his eyes as Alex and Ariel, in shorty pajamas, peeked down from the staircase. "You haven't been sleeping well, have you?"

Stone shook his head.

"Derek, go into my other bag, please? I have samples of an anti-anxiety drug in there," Nova said. "You're going to get ten milligrams of Ativanda Twelve. I'll have them prescribe you more at the hospital, because I can see you're shaking like a leaf. What did they do to you? Lights? Sounds? Loud music?"

"All of the above," muttered Stone. _Plus Ekogaru showing me his true form_, he thought. _He took me somewhere,_ he thought a moment later. _Where was it? There was fire, screams, souls in torment. Hell? Yes, it may have been. General Ebenezer Thomas Jackson Stone, you saw demons and Hell tonight. And that's part of where they tortured me. Alive. In Hell._

"How did the sole of your foot get burned?" Nova said as she made Stone put up his bare foot on a divan.

"I do not want to say," said Stone. "Part of their torture…" _It was down in Hell_, he thought. _A pit of molten sulfur. Or was it those rocks covered with liquid fire? I was naked…and on fire….Ekogaru then healed that damage…did they burn my arm down to the bones?_ Stone thought as he looked at his arm. _Yes, they did…or was I hallucinating all this?_

Stone put his hands to his ears and screamed as Ekogaru's voice sounded in his head. The Dark Lord said, _YOU HALLUCINATED NOTHING, STONE! IT WAS ALL REAL! REMEMBER WELL BEFORE YOU VIOLATE ORDERS AGAIN!_

Stone stood there whimpering, which was so much unlike him that Derek and Nova both looked at him with shock on their faces. The lightning went off outside again. Stone gritted his teeth and went dead quiet as Nova worked in him, Then, finally, when Nova was done, Derek excused himself and he got some clothing out of his room. "Here's a shirt, a spare pair of jeans, and an old set of boots, sir. I think they may fit you. Nova, help him into those?"

Nova nodded, and she and Derek helped Stone stand up and drop his pants. "Derek...look at his legs," Nova said. "My God. General Stone, you need to have this seen at the emergency room, too! And your underwear's soaked with blood. Should I help you out of those so I can get a look?"

"No," said Stone.

"General…I'm a medical professional. I've seen hundreds of bare butts and family jewels of both genders," Nova said. "To be perfectly blunt, I am only turned on by _one_ butt in the world," Nova said as she winked at Derek. "In accordance with my wedding vows. The part where you say "forsaking all others"" Nova said softly.

"Mrs. Wildstar, I am a GENERAL. You are _not_ dropping my shorts!" whimpered Stone.

"You're being ridiculous. I go to bed nearly every night with a one-star Admiral," Nova said. "Generals and Admirals look just the same naked as everyone else. C'mon, now!"

Stone shook his head.

"Okay, you can get those looked at in the hospital," Derek said.

"Hospital?" Stone asked.

"That's where you're going when we get done with you. Please leave Chelsea's ashes with us. We can give them back to you after you get out of the hospital," Nova said as she made Stone step out of his tattered pants while she cleaned and sutured his leg wounds, thinking, _It looks like someone tied him to a whipping post! My God!_

Stone gasped and whimpered quietly as Nova worked on him. Then, both Wildstars helped him dress. Derek then reached into a drawer in a table in the living room and handed Stone sixty credits. "Here's something for you for carfare, along with your wallet and ID. Nova, call him an airtaxi?"

"Sure," Nova said, making a phone call to a cab company. She said, "I need an aircab as soon as possible for 70 Cove Neck Road, in the College Point District of Edogawa City in the Greater Megalopolis. Yes, the Edozaki neighborhood, please. Twenty minutes. Thank you. Will the driver be a human or a robot? A robot. Well, I'll still tip him anyway. Thank you."

"General, the cab is on the way," Nova said. "Would you like some more brandy? I made some apple pie before for Derek, myself, and the kids."

"No, I don't want anything," Stone said. "It's just drizzling now….give me an umbrella…and I'll wait outside."

"Button up your shirt?" Derek said.

Stone did so, and he took the money and treatment directions that Nova said he was to hand it at the ER, and he left the house.

"Something weird is going on here with Stone," Derek said as he gave Nova a pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah…you're telling me," Nova said as she took Chelsea's ashes and placed them on the _butsudan_ or family altar in an alcove in the living room where they were memorialized, along with a picture of Derek's dead parents, pictures of other deceased family members (such as the late Captain Hiram Josiah on Nova's side of the family) and, along with these pictures was a traditional image of the Buddha, with portraits of the Lord portrayed as the Good Shepherd and the Virgin Mary above them. After placing the image, Nova knelt, clapped her hands once, crossed herself, and then was joined by Derek as they prayed for Chelsea Stone, and then lit two sticks of incense, which they kept burning at each side of the urn in their holders. They had just memorialized Chelsea Stone with far more reverence and tenderness than Stone had ever done…for the woman he had murdered.

"I pray they catch the madmen who killed her, Derek," Nova yawned. "Let's go back to bed after we check on the kids."

"Yeah, agreed," said Derek.

* * *

Morning came, and Nova cuddled Derek in bed, snuggling Ariel when she toddled up to her for a quick feeding at her bare breast.

"Where's your brother?" Nova asked Ariel.

"Alex still in sleepy land. Lazy poo-poo head!" Ariel said. "What Mommy doing?"

"Getting you a bath and some clothes," said Nova as she picked up Ariel. Alex ran into the room and tackled his father. Derek laughed as Alex jumped on him, tickling him and rough-housing with him.

"You're funny…you're funny, you're funny!" yelled Derek. He and Alex whispered together, and then they both gave Ariel and Nova "Indian rubs" on the top of their heads. Ariel screeched and Nova yelled, then she grabbed Derek and began to rub the top of his head in an Indian rub.

After a quick shower, where all four of the family jammed into the shower together and laughed as water and suds went all over the place, Derek put on an old T-shirt and swim trunks, and dressed Alex in training pants and a little boy's "muscle shirt". Nova put on the clothes she was going to wear to the Iscandarian Embassy, namely, simple shorts and a tube top. She stuck Ariel in a frilly top but left her bottomless to let her tush air out. Nova looked at Alex's underwear and told Derek, "Derek dear, if he starts to show a rash down there, get rid of his pants. Remember, he wet himself yesterday, too…."

"Sure," said Derek as he let Alex suck at his finger. "I'm feeling those hard spots in his gums, but no teeth coming yet. Nova, did you check with Doctor Stuart about this?"

"Yes, she said that they could begin to erupt anytime between now and eighteen or nineteen months. She did scans of their mouths; all the teeth are developing, but they're just taking some time to work their way up and out," Nova said as she pushed some of the pancakes she had made up in a mixture of syrup and butter and fed Alex. Ariel went in the high chair beside Alex, and she played with the sliced apples and oranges Nova had left on the plate with a jar of ersatz _kren _imported from Gamilon. One had to look for them, but some goods from Iscandar and Gamilon were beginning to show up in general trade in Terran society, along with goods from Rikasha.

Nova then washed up, and said to Derek, "Do you have the kids in hand for today, dear?"

"I believe I do," Derek said as he watched Nova kicking off her house slippers. Then, he said, "Aren't you putting on shoes?"

"I have thongs in the car in case the pavement gets hot today, Derek," Nova said as she stood there barefoot. "Look at how cloudy it is. I'll be lucky if Starsha and I don't get rained on," Nova said with a laugh as she picked up her handbag. She pulled out her Astro-Automatic, cocked it, and checked it before putting it back in the large handbag. Then, she stuck on an amusing-looking 1960' ish looking cap (something that made her look like Bob Dylan or John Lennon) and she put on an ankle bracelet made of shells.

Kissing Derek goodbye for the day, she got into her beat-up Fiat project convertible and drove off. Along the way, she ran an errand. She and Derek needed to get the keys for their house in San Diego to Dawn Hardy, so she dropped them off with a secretary at her father's law office with a note since Karl Forrester would be visiting San Diego in a few days and would be able to drop them off either with Dawn's mother Lynn Westland or Dawn Hardy herself. The secretary took them and told Nova that she would make sure her father got them.

When Nova arrived at the Iscandarian Embassy, it was still warm, but not as hot as it had been yesterday.

Nova was ushered into the grounds around Starsha and Alex's private villa near the beach, where she found Starsha covering her nude body slightly when she emerged from a hot tub.

"Good morning," Nova said. "Where's Alex?"

"They took him to Earth Defense Headquarters earlier this morning," Starsha said. "He's negotiating the particulars to purchase four old Patrol Cruisers for the Royal Fleet. He says if the deal is consummated, the ships will be leaving for Iscandar with us when we leave Earth on Tuesday." Starsha smiled and let the sun hit her face. "I miss Iscandar, but your sun and sky are so nice."

"Where's your clothes, Starsha?" said Nova.

"Over there," Starsha said. "I got casual things as you suggested."

Starsha toweled off, put on underpants, and began to dress. She put on an off-the shoulder white top, royal blue shorts, blue thong sandals that matched the shorts, a purse, and light blue sunglasses. "How do I look?" Starsha said.

"Like a typical young college student coming back to campus after a nice summer," Nova replied. "Many women our age look like this. I don't think we'll be noticed or bothered."

"Well, let's go, then," said Starsha.

* * *

**AN HOUR LATER….**

After parking her little yellow car in a public parking area, Nova took Starsha to a boutique or two.

They emerged with a good-sized bag of clothes and shoes each. Luckily, Starsha had been given an unlimited ration card as a guest of the Earth Government (there was nothing obvious about it) and Nova had a pretty good amount of ration points since she economized by making some of her own clothes, and her standing in society gave her some bonus points.

Then, Nova took Starsha to a spa called "Bunny Heaven"-a unisex spa where Nova paid and they were ushered into a locker room where they stripped down, took a bath in an onsen (where they spent some time shooting the breeze with their wet hair wrapped in towels), and then they emerged into a courtyard inside the complex where they lay down on benches in the nude and received some soothing massages. Then, they turned over and their legs and bikini areas were treated with some depilatory cream. When they were done, they dressed and received manicures and pedicures while their hair was blow-dried.

When they were done, Starsha came out, amused. "I could have had my ladies-in-waiting do a better job for us at home," she said quietly in the car.

"But I thought you were interested in seeing how we do it on Earth?" Nova said, let down a little.

"Yes, I must admit, I was curious, and I thank you. Now, what is in that basket?"

"Sandwiches and juice. We are going to have a picnic," Nova said.

"What is…a picnic?" Starsha said.

Nova laughed. "It's where you sit outside and enjoy the grass and sky and eat," she said as she drove to Ueno Park.

They stopped at a parking lot near the park and went off into the grass, stretching out to eat an early lunch and enjoy the breeze.

Starsha finally said, "This is beautiful. A bit of green in the middle of your planet's capital city."

"I like it," Nova said. "See that fountain over there? I like to get the babies to splash in there with me. Sometimes, when it's hot, off come our clothes and we all play in the water. Derek sometimes joins us." Nova smiled and said, "Derek seems so serious and tough, right?"

"He does seem awfully committed to his work…but I do sense a softness and vulnerability about him," Starsha said.

"Quite correct," Nova said. "When it's peacetime, he's really….a big old sweet softie. Don't tell him I ever told you that."

Nova and Starsha laughed as they lay back in the grass. "Ever watch the clouds?" Nova asked.

"Watch condensated water deposits in the sky?" said Starsha.

Nova laughed. "It's a matter of imagination. Like…look at that cloud," Nova said. "It looks like a cat. What does that one look like to you?"

"Alex's nose? It is awfully big."

Nova chuckled at that one. "That one looks like Alex…_my_ baby Alex…when he's throwing a tantrum. Now, what does that one look like?"

"A certain part of Leader Desslok," Starsha said with a smirk.

"What part?" Nova said.

Starsha whispered the name of the body part in Nova's ear. Nova fell into the grass like a schoolgirl. "NO!" she said with a laugh.

"We were in love," said Starsha. "And we did…."

"I know what you're talking about," Nova huffed. "I'm married. I'm amazed at you! You remember I was the one who had to tell you to find happiness with Alex Wildstar?"

"Yes. Is that what Derek's looks like?" Starsha said innocently.

"None of your business," Nova said.

Starsha said, "Ah, but I have seen Derek naked…remember that beach?"

"Yes, but he wasn't…."

"He was looking at you quite…amusingly at one point," said Starsha. "And, well….he…had"

"He did _not_!" Nova said.

"He did too," said Queen Starsha. "Now I see why you had twins."

"ARRRGGHH!" Nova said as she punched the grass. "You are _horrible!_"

"Thank you, dear," said Starsha, all innocence.

"Now I see where Sasha gets it from," said Nova.

"Actually, I think I'm worse than her. I'm much older," Starsha said.

"How much?"

"Tell you on the trip home, dear," Starsha said as she kissed Nova on the nose. "We can't talk too much here, right?"

"Right."

* * *

Zoltar and his forces, as it turned out, had crashed on an equatorial island on Gamilon known as Gitranja Island.

Now, Gitranja Island was something on a tropical paradise-but only at first glance.

As Zoltar and his men were discovering, there were all sorts of odd things about the island.

First of all, it was hot there. And humid. The heat level was somewhere around 115 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and with that heat and humidity, Gamilon's somewhat heavier (as compared to Earth-normal) gravitational pull could wear upon a person.

Second, the air and water there were of a somewhat lower pH than the many other parts of reborn Gamilon, due to the fact that Gitranja Island was not far from a chain of islands that had very active volcanoes and were, in effect, uninhabitable, even by Gamilons.

Zoltar and his men were discovering that the lower pH factor created some rather odd acid rain. It had rained twice since they had been there. If the rainwater got into your eyes, it stung the eyes a bit, and moderately stung the skin.

However, the acidic humidity and rain had a rather nasty effect upon clothing.

Namely, it wore at it and aged it rapidly. Zoltar had crashed on the island with seven survivors; three of his crew had died at once in the crash.

Of those seven crash survivors, two of them now had no boots (one of them had lost them in a sand bog) and one of the men that had no boots was now also well along the way of losing his pants.

"Zoltar, what sort of hell did we end up in?" asked one of the men, who was named Brava.

"So, this part of Gamilon is a jungle, and is mildly unpleasant," said Zoltar.

"Mildly unpleasant, sir?" said another man, named Kivar. "Zoltar, have you had one of those….centipede-things in your hair yet?"

"Not yet," said Zoltar as he stopped his group on a hill so they could catch their breath. "Now, what have we found to eat?"

"These stupid-ass things that look like pineapples, sir," said Brava. "They taste weird, but you can eat them."

"I do not recommend your drink the water," said Zoltar. "There may be parasites in it…"

"I found out ya need to boil it, sir," said Freca.

"How'd you find out?" said Kivar.

"Man, I got the trots like hell!" yelled Freca. "I've been shitting every time we stop for the past day, and…"

Then, laser fire bounced in.

"Disperse!" yelled Zoltar as his men took their weapons and split up as more laser fire skipped in from some Gamilon troopers wearing the dark blue battle armor of the Garumans.

One of Zoltar's men, named Korak, got a shot through the heart and died leaning against something that looked like a palm tree.

Another one of Zoltar's men, named Izlak, set off a net trap. He soon found himself entangled in a steel net four meters above the ground.

"We bagged one of them," said a Gamilon trooper with pride in his voice.

"Good," said Lefttenant Marcal, a Gamilon of Iscandarian descent who had Caucasian-looking skin rather than blue skin. "Jurgens, Halleck, pull him in! We will take him back to the base and begin his interrogation there. Findar, where'd the others go?"

"Scattered, sir," said Findar, a regular blue Gamilon, as he snapped Marcal a salute.

"Let me down from this cursed trap!" Izlak yelled. "I'll cooperate! I'll do anything! Damn you, Ibn Zoltar!"

"Oh, we'll let you down, all right," said Marcal with an evil smile. "But we have truncheons waiting for you, and we intend to use you for practice in subduing prisoners. I do not think you will like it…."

* * *

On Earth, a day after her visit with Queen Starsha, the Sun did another one of its bursts (as they had predicted) and the temperature on Earth became far hotter than it had been the previous day.

Now on this day, August 22nd, a day before the _Argo's_ scheduled departure, Nova was pedaling her bike along in a park not far from her home as she rode back from an errand to meet Derek and the kids in the park; they were going to meet up with Homer and Wendy later that day at home for a little party on their own beach cove prior to leaving for Iscandar the next day.

Now, it was very warm (the temperature was close to a hundred and twenty Fahrenheit) and Nova was very much dressed down for the weather on her bike; she wore a short cropped blouse held closed with one button, a very short and cool skirt, a pair of slide sandals, and absolutely nothing else. Dressed down that way, she was getting quite acclimated (naturally) to extreme heat.

Derek, who wore a swimsuit and flip-flops, smiled at Nova as she rode up. Alex and Ariel were beside him on a blanket, playing while clad in only their training pants and sandals.

"Nova, dear," said Derek as he kissed his wife. "Mission accomplished?"

Nova smiled and nodded. "I paid for the beer, soda, ice, and chips. They should be delivered and here by oh….1130 Hours," she said. She knelt down to greet Ariel after getting off her bike. "How's my baby girl today?"

"Daddy took me potty in the bushes," she said with a big smile. "I made both poo-poo _and_ pee-pee in the bushes!" she giggled.

"Oooo…and your pants aren't wet!" Nova said as she kissed her daughter. "Good job, Ariel!"

They got home a few minutes later. Soon, the Glitchmans arrived; Homer had on a swimsuit in dark blue; Wendy wore a white bikini and sandals as she got Aaron and Joshua out of the car; they had on nothing but their diapers.

They carried the babies out of the car as the deliveryman from the beer place arrived with the refreshments. After Nova and Derek kicked off their shoes so it would be easier for them to work in the grass, they set up some coolers filled with ice and the cans of beer, soda, and juice they had ordered, Homer spread out a blanket in the yard not far from the walk that led down to the beach. When the blanket was set up, Wendy sat near Homer; all Wendy had on at that point was her bikini bottoms; she had tossed her top aside to nurse Aaron, and had also taken off her sandals.

Nova laughed as Alex crawled up beside her, kissed her, and undid the button holding her blouse closed. He smiled at her breasts, and went towards his mother to nurse. Ariel was soon doing the same thing. Alex finished up about four minutes later, and Ariel got done two minutes after then. Both children then began to chirp, "We wanna go swimming! We wanna go swimming! We wanna _go swimming_!"…and Alex made the point very clear by shedding his pants.

Nova laughed. "Honey, you need your shoes off, too, before we can go in," she said as she caught her son and began to relieve him of his sandals, while stripping off her own top and undoing her miniskirt. About a minute later, both mother and son were naked for the pool as Nova worked on undressing Ariel.

"I'll join you guys in a bit," laughed Derek, as he admired his young wife's body, thinking, _Nova, my darling, you are so beautiful when you go naked in this heat. Knowing that it may take the Sun 4 or 5 years to go back to normal is a bit of Hell, but seeing you like that…naked… more makes this a bit of Heaven. _

"Good," Nova said. "When you do, please take off those swim trunks? They look hideous," Nova said with a laugh. "C'mon, Alexander…Ariel….we have to get a shower in the poolhouse before we go in…we're all sweaty!"

"Don't makee too hot?" said Ariel.

"No, Mommy will not make it too hot," Nova said as she kissed her daughter. "Like to join us, Wendy?" Nova said.

"In a while," Wendy replied as she lay back on the towel. Homer had shed his bottoms, and he was helping Wendy undress the babies for the pool

* * *

After a swim in the pool, most everyone took that four-hundred meter walk down the hill to the Wildstars' bit of beach near the old, small beach house.

The beer was lugged down to the beach. The adults imbibed while all those under the Earth Federation's legal drinking age of nineteen had juice, soda, (or if very small) milk from their mothers. Nova and Wendy had both given quick feeds to their toddlers, which were ridiculously easy since both Wendy and Nova were nude, along with their toddlers. Nova lay back against Derek's chest and relaxed as she nursed while Derek fed her some juice while he worked on a beer himself.

After the adults had some beer, Jonathan sat in the sand with his mother working on a sand castle as another random teenage girl, naked except for a life ring held over herself, walked past in the background sporting a cute ponytail.

Nova was smiling as she worked on the sand castle with Jonathan. Little Alex was trying to build his own sand castle not far away, but it was more of an exercise of the boy tossing around sand than in building a sand castle. "Now, let's get this tower carved just right…."

"Where do ya get these plans from, Mom?" Jonathan said with a scowl on his face.

"My head," Nova replied as she crawled around on her hands and knees, waving at Derek as he walked past holding a can of beer. Derek waved back as he talked with Jefferson Hardy and Deke Wakefield while Ariel ran after him, holding a shell and chattering away. Derek smiled at Nova, not getting enough of the sight of her crawling around in the sand in her lovely hot-weather beach nakedness. Nova grabbed Alex as he tried to jump at the sand castle.

Then, Jonathan scowled more as he heard a giggle. "Oh, no, Mom! It's Felicia!"

"Your girlfriend?" Nova teased back. "Does she know about you and your magazine collection?"

"MOM!" yelled Jonathan as he threw sand at his mother. Nova laughed and threw sand back at him.

Felicia showed up a moment later. Jonathan's eyes went wide.

Felicia Carmody wore only a striped pair of bikini bottoms and a simulated sharks' tooth necklace that set off her bare breasts. She was slender, cute, and perky.

Jonathan reacted to her presence with a smile….and another part of his nude body also responded…by coming to attention.

Felicia giggled as Jonathan put his hands over his crotch. "Are you sure that has suntan lotion on it, Jon? It'll get sunburned!"

Nova also laughed at his discomfiture, thinking to herself…. _How cute!_

The fun they had that day was tempered with the knowledge that they would be leaving Earth the next morning on the _Argo._

Of course, they did that on time the next morning. Destination; Gamilon.

* * *

**V. A STAY ON GAMILON**

**Planet Gamilon**

**Space Battleship _Argo_**

**The City of Gamilstadt**

**August 27, 2208**

**1941 Hours: Earth Standard Space-Time**

* * *

Exactly four days later, after many continuous space warps, the _Argo_ finally reached Planet Gamilon on Saturday, August 27th, 2208, followed by the Iscandarian Spacecraft Carrier _Princess Astra_ (on which Alex and Starsha were) along with the four Patrol Cruisers transferred to Iscandarian hands. The Iscandarian vessels headed for Iscandar, while the _Argo_ landed on rebuilt Gamilon.

The Star Force was surprised, upon their arrival back on Gamilon, how warm it was, even in the latitudes where the Capital was.

"What were you saying the temperature was outside again, Nova?" Derek asked. "Alex and Ariel will probably like it…"

"Ninety-two," Nova said. "And I thought it would be cool here. We're not getting away from the heat _anywhere_ on this cruise, Derek! WHEW!"

"Well, at least you threw your uniform back on when we shipped out," Doctor Sane quipped.

"Oh, please," Nova said. "This spandex uniform shows enough. You think I'd actually carry out a mission in a _swimsuit_?" (Given what would happen on this mission, Nova would later think her comment was very amusing).

"I did once," Sane quipped.

"Were you _sober_ then, Doctor?" said Derek as he, Nova, and Sandor laughed.

"Enough," said Sandor. "Wildstar, that message from Desslok we received yesterday before we warped out of the Rainbow Star Cluster said that they've tracked Ibn Zoltar here to Gamilon. He said it would be our job to help the Gamilons get him, right?"

"I remember he said that," Derek said. "He said that the Gamilon-Garuman Empire is technically a neutral party in this conflict, since they are opening relations with the Spectran Royal House. However, they have, in fact, been fighting Zoltar's men."

"Can't Desslok use his influence to stop these terrible terrorist attacks?" Nova asked.

"He said that he considers Ibn Zoltar a rogue officer of theirs; somewhat beyond the pale," said Sandor.

"I don't like the sound of that, Steve," said Diane. "Sounds to me like he's looking for plausible deniability, or something like that."

"Maybe _we_ should be doing that," said Sandor.

"Maybe you _should_ be," said a dulcet, low voice as one of the _Argo's_ bridge doors whizzed open…and Desslok strode onto the First Bridge, followed by Talan.

"Hello, Leader Desslok," said Derek. He saluted, and so did the rest of the crew that was present.

Desslok returned the salute, and then he said, "We have an idea where on Gamilon Zoltar is."

"And where is that?" said Commodore Wildstar.

"If you could have an officer take this data cartridge," Desslok said as Talan handed him a cartridge, complete with an EDF adapter clip on one side. Luckily, the alliance between Gamilon and Earth now meant that certain small Terran items could actually be found on Gamilon; of all things, a McDonald's (similar to the one on Iscandar near the EDF Base) had just opened up in Gamilstadt for the Terran Embassy and EDF Liaison Forces on Gamilon in the past month; and it appeared some of the Gamilons also enjoyed the Terran food.

"I'll take that," said Derek. "Homer, come over here and put this on the main video panel."

"Yessir," Homer said.

After Homer plugged in the data cartridge, a picture of Gitranja Island came up on the _Argo's_ main video panel. "By your measuring systems," said Desslok, "Gitranja Island is about ninety kilometers long, and roughly thirty-two kilometers wide. We have a small fighter and patrol tank base at the northern end near that cape," Desslok said. "There's no other habitation there. The island is covered with heavy jungle, swamps, bogs, rivers, and a mountain of about six kilometers' height dominates the center of the island. There is food and wildlife there, although I traveled there once since Gamilon was reborn and did not find the food there…to be entirely palatable. In your parlance…"

"You could "rough it" there, but it wouldn't be luxurious," Nova said.

"Precisely. Anyone who chose to hide out there could do so for a while," Desslok said. "But they would have to be either quite desperate…or quite mad."

"This Zoltar fellow seems to be both," said Commodore Wildstar.

"Ah get the impression he's a total screwloose nutcase," said Eager.

"Colorful language, young man, but you're quite correct," Desslok said.

"Leader Desslok, I have the patrol tank unit and fighters spread out in four diverse zones, but, except for one recent contact, we lost them," Talan said.

"Astrena offered to try to perform a mental search for the madman, but I refuse to let her travel within a hundred kilometers of that island," said Desslok. "I think that's where you come in, Wildstar?"

Derek looked around at his crew. "We've worked out a solution to the problem of finding him. We have a record, from our contacts with him, of such things as his body temperature, heart rate and rhythms, breathing patterns, _et cetera,_ which vary slightly from our average life sign readings on Earth because he appears to be a mutant of some type. We have developed a special sensor packet to pickup and isolate such life signs. It's run on a mission by Nova, who has the biological sciences, medical, and survey training to pick up such life signs. My Technical Chief, Stephen Sandor, has taken the sensor units off the fighter plane that they were mounted on and has placed them on an all-terrain spaceflight-capable landing vehicle we use known as a Jet Recon Boat. We can insert a team into the interior of Gitranja Island in one of those vehicles and the sensor unit would be able to get us about a kilometer or two away from Zoltar. From there, it would be a matter of tracking his trail by simple land navigation in the Boat, or on foot if needed."

"Your method sounds like a good idea," Desslok said. "If you could share his life signs with us, we could also begin scanning for him in a day or so to assist you." Desslok then cleared his throat. "When were you planning on departing with your team, Wildstar?"

"Sometime early tomorrow morning, after the _Argo_ leaves for Iscandar. She'd be under the temporary command of Commander Paul Rosstowski, my Combat Group Leader, for that phase of the mission, since my first and second officers would both be accompanying me on the mission onto Gitranja Island," Derek said while looking at Sandor, his XO on this mission, and Nova, now his second officer.

"Very well," said Desslok. "Since I understand that your children wish to meet my youngest child Aisha, would you and Nova like to spend the night as my guests in the Imperial Palace? As you opened your home to me on Earth, I now open it to you here on Gamilon."

"That would be an honor, Desslok," said Derek. He turned to Sandor and shook his hand. "We'll meet up with you at 0700 tomorrow morning aboard the _Argo_. You'll be in command until then."

"If we're going to stay with you, Desslok," Nova said with a blush, "Let me get the children and get changed into a dress."

"Please get the children," Desslok said. "We would like you to attend dinner with your children with the General Staff, but a formal outfit is not necessary. A casual outfit would be better for that purpose. Then, later, we will partake of my hot spring bath and have a pleasant talk. For that part of the evening, clothing will be both unnecessary…and rather undesirable."

"Thank you, Desslok," Nova said….blushing even more deeply.

At that, Derek and Nova saluted the crew and went to get Alex and Ariel.

* * *

A few minutes later, Nova had gone up to the Captain's Quarters with Derek where she undressed, fed Ariel in her lap, and then washed herself and her little daughter in the shower while Derek undressed Alex out of his training pants and t-shirt and dressed him in a little green boys' shorty coverall (worn right over his bare form) and brown sandals.

Nova came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, which she shed to dry off Ariel while Ariel said, "Where are we going?"

"To see Aisha," said Nova. Then, she dressed in a pink shorty romper of the sort she favored, simply and quickly pulling on the outfit over her nude body. Then, she followed it up with a new pair of sandals that she had purchased the other day when shopping on Earth with Queen Starsha. They were pink and matched the outfit, and as Nova wiggled her toes in them, she thought they felt great. After dressing, Nova looked at Derek and said, "Does this outfit make me look fat?"

"Mrs. Wildstar," sniffed Derek as he eyed Nova appreciatively from the top of her head down her outfit and slender bare legs to the bare tips of her coral-pink toenails. "No, that outfit decidedly does not make you look fat. You look _adorable_ in it."

"Why, thank you," Nova said as she struck a little pose before picking up Ariel to dress her in a little white coverall and white sandals similar to Alex's outfit. "You want your jacket, Derek?"

"No, I'll just go without it," he said, comfortable in his Star Force whites and boots.

* * *

At the Court dinner, the Wildstars were near Desslok in the place of honor to his right at the Court table while Astrena, Dellar, and some of the Generals of Desslok's staff filed in for the banquet.

"Gentlemen," said Desslok. "I would introduce to you our guests from Earth tonight. To my right, going from right to left, are seated Commodore Derek Michael Wildstar and Commander Nova Dawn Yukiko Wildstar, the current Commanding Officer and Second Officer of the Space Battleship _Argo_ and the Star Force. Seated to their right are two of their children, Master Alexander Derek Wildstar the Third, and Mistress Ariel Starsha Wildstar. Their third child, their adopted son, Jonathan Hartnell-Wildstar, is a Junior Space Cadet Corps Cadet on the _Argo_, so he could not be here with us, as he is on duty."

"I'm NOT on duty!" yelled Alex. Used to Dellar's occasional mouth, the General Staff chuckled at Alex.

"I'm not on duty, either. Tryin' to go to sleep," yawned Ariel.

"Honey, they're going to be bringing food soon," said Nova.

"Grup food or baby food?" said Alex.

"What do you want?" said Nova.

"Grup food," said Alex.

"Baby food," said Ariel.

"I want you babies to shut up _now_. Or I may have to execute you, because I am the Crown Prince!" Dellar said.

"Dellar, calm down," said Astrena.

"Father, where is that special button so I can drop them down the hole? Look! They're laughing at their own jokes!" Dellar pronounced as Alex and Ariel began to giggle while their mortified parents tried to calm them down.

"That's because they're babies," Desslok said. "They don't know any better."

"My Lord, when can we begin this dinner and our conference?" said a bald General who sported an eye patch. "This is serious business! We have mad outsiders invading Mother Gamilon! Those men have to be crushed! We don't need the antics of…of…_barbarian babies!_" yelled the General. "I even wonder why these Terran Barbarians should be here!"

"_Barbarians?"_ hissed Derek as he glared at Desslok and Nova with his teeth gritted.

"General Haakon, you're ruining my appetite and that of our guests of honour," Desslok said. Desslok prepared to hit a small button on the arm of his throne. Then, he said to Derek and Nova, "My friends, please forgive the insult to your honour." Desslok then whispered something into a tiny microphone that appeared before his mouth and then he keyed the button. Haakon thus went down a hole in the floor, yelling as he vanished. Nova looked horrified.

"Oh, my God! What happened to him?" Nova cried with her hands up to her face.

"Mommy! Daddy! Where did he go?" yelled Ariel. "Uncle Desslok! Where is he?"

"He's being taken care of," Desslok purred. "You see, I had to make an example of him! My allies are not to be mocked!"

"I bet he's being eaten up now by alligators," said Alex rubbing his hands.

"Not quite," said Desslok as he absently scratched his head.

"Is he in an acid sea?" Ariel said.

"Is he in a torture chamber?" asked Derek.

"Father would tell all of you, but it is a State Secret," said Dellar with a grin.

"He sure was _rude_," Nova said.

"Correct, Nova. I only treat _animals_ like that. Not honorable Gamilons," he said as a serving girl brought him wine. "Nor honorable Terrans such as yourselves. Now, let us enjoy this banquet." Desslok looked out at his generals. "Oh? Do any of the rest of you Generals, Colonels, and Admirals care to be comedians?"

They shook their heads and stood one by one to salute Desslok.

"Very wise," Desslok said. "Very wise…"

"I'm glad we don't pull that in the Earth Defense Council, Nova," whispered Derek in her ear as they began to calm down while they ate as they watched Alex and Ariel.

"Maybe we should, Derek," Nova said.

"Hmmh?" Derek said.

"For people like General Stone," Nova said. "Sorry, dear. Just trying to be funny."

"Who is General Stone?" said Desslok.

Nova said, "Desslok, he is…the functionary who was yelling at me the other day. He is not a nice man."

"Ah, I see," said Desslok. "Astrena, my intelligence says he is an idiot, yes?"

Astrena nodded slowly. "He's worse than an idiot, Desslok. There is something dark about him. I just wish I could put my finger on it…"

* * *

After dinner, Desslok, Astrena, Dellar, and some of his female guards gently conducted the Wildstars up many elevators, past some guard posts, and then into an area where the functional flooring turned into thick, luxurious carpet that looked like an anteroom with benches. Desslok then said, as he began to remove his boots while gently helping Astrena unbuckle her strappy sandals, "M'ladies, would you kindly show the Wildstars where they can secure their footwear and valuables until morning? The apartments where we will be reposing tonight are all carpeted like this, so you have no need of footwear there, unless you desire slippers?"

"Oh, no," Nova said. "I like to go barefoot in my home." Derek smiled at Dellar as he giggled while Astrena took off his boots and tickled the bottoms of his feet. "I remember you're ticklish there," said Nova as she took her sandals off.

"You're not going to wash me again!" said Dellar. "You're a tyrant!"

Astrena giggled, "Don't be rude with your Auntie Nova….she's very good with kids. I never saw the back of your neck so clean as when she was done with you that day on the _Argo_."

"Mommy, when can I undress?" said Alex.

"Soon, I think," Nova said as she got him out of his shoes and then crawled over on her hands and knees to help Derek with his boots. "Desslok, didn't you say you had a bath? Do I hear running water in there?""

"Oh, I do have a bath," Desslok said calmly as he stood barefoot while two ladies-in-waiting stripped him of his cape. He snapped his fingers and said, "This way. I do hope you don't request those absurd bathing garments you see in your culture?"

"Not to take a bath in an onsen, c'mon now," laughed Derek.

"Good, you're sensible," Desslok replied said as two guards took up positions near a large irising door. Two of Desslok's attendants stepped through, followed by the Leader, Astrena, and Dellar. Dellar, like Alex, was already being impatient and was pulling off his clothes, to the amusement of the ladies-in-waiting.

When they stepped through the door, they found Desslok's huge suite. The carpet was wine-colored (Nova spent a minute just curling her toes into the carpet; it was _so_ soft and thick), and they could see a huge curtained bed, surrounded by a few small tables, in a large alcove off behind a massive, warm spring water bath built into the floor that looked big enough to hold most of the Imperial Staff. Nova smiled at the bath, and Derek looked impressed. A waterfall fed the bath

A Gamilon wet-nurse, in the nude except for the towel around her waist, handed a naked, cooing Aisha to Astrena as she snapped her fingers and two bath attendants began to quickly but tenderly strip her of her headpiece and clothing. As soon as Astrena's breasts were bared, she tenderly let Aisha begin to nurse at her as the women slid her gown down her and stripped her nude.

"Can I have my Mommy in a minute? Oooohh..is that baby Aisha?" said Ariel as the Gamilon nurse smiled at her and tenderly helped her undress.

"Yes, it is," said Astrena as she nodded to the attendants, who motioned Nova aside a little as she gently stopped Nova from pulling down her own zipper and said, "My lady? Do not trouble yourself with that. We will disrobe you and return your raiment in the morning, cleaned and pressed. Would you like some lotion rubbed into your shoulders?"

"Sure," Nova said, suppressing a little surge of jealously as two other beautiful women began to undress Derek. "All I ask is; may I put lotion on my husband's shoulders? I'm a trained masseuse…"

"Of course, m'Lady," said the attendant as she gently finished undressing a blushing Derek. Nova knelt behind him, letting Ariel crawl into her lap and take her breast as soon as she was undressed. She kissed the back of Derek's neck and began to stroke his shoulders while he dangled his feet in the water. Nova smiled at Desslok, who smiled back at the affectionate couple as his attendants finished undressing him; and soon, all of the children there were also undressed as Astrena cuddled up to him, got a lotion, and unabashedly began to put a lotion on Desslok's manhood as he smiled. Dellar dove into the bath and splashed around, causing Alex to follow him. Some attendants stepped into the water with them and gently but firmly helped them wash before they were left to splash, swim, and play in the water near the waterfall.

Nova smiled as Ariel went from breast to breast while looking at Aisha in Astrena's arms. Astrena said, "You can touch her, Ariel. Isn't her skin so soft? I'm following the old Pellian custom and she won't be dressed until around the time her first or second year ends, after she learns to use the refresher."

"What's a we-fwesh-er?" said Ariel.

Nova giggled. "Dear, that's what they call the potty here on Gamilon. Tell Astrena what you're learning to do."

"Go potty," said Ariel.

"Potty is your refresher?" said Astrena.

Ariel nodded.

Nova noticed the gentleness between Desslok and Astrena, who smiled when Derek kissed Nova and tenderly seated her in his lap. Nova lay back on Derek's lap with her eyes closed as Derek tenderly began to play with her other breast. When Nova realized what was going on, she blushed a bit, and almost wanted Derek to stop (at least here in front of Desslok and Astrena and all the attendants) but Astrena just smiled as she touched Desslok's crotch and said, "Oh, I never knew you were so intimate with him when you nursed, Nova. That is _lovely_. He's helping you produce milk for when you change breasts?"

Derek blushed but Nova whispered, "I believe we're safe here, Derek." He nodded and Nova said, "I wrote about this in my book on child care and pregnancy; it will be published soon. Many people on my world used to fear the sensations they would get when they nursed their babies. Indeed, some even considered it immoral to give their babies milk from their bodies at one time not long ago on Earth. They resorted to crude bottles instead. That makes no sense to me. The mother is not nurturing them with what her body generates that way. Nor is she giving the baby her warmth, her tenderness, or the nice feel of her body against the baby's. It's so warm on Earth now due to the problems with the Sun that I always nurse naked like this now. And it feels even better with Derek holding me and the babies like this. He is such a kind father….and a good partner for me. We also were among the models I used for illustrations for my book. The pictures illustrate lots of things; the way the body changes in pregnancy; intimacy during pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding; bathing the baby, intimacy between parents. Derek and my mother took most of the pictures; they're very good photographers, and the models were often nude for clarity. The photographs complement the book tastefully and nicely."

"Are you considering having more children?" said Astrena.

"We might be," Derek said as he stroked Nova's hair.

"May I have a copy of your book when it is published?" Astrena asked. "It sounds both interesting and beautiful."

"Oh, of course!" Nova said. "It's not the only book I've written. I was one of a number of writers in a book that Derek, Mark Venture, and Stephen Sandor wrote about our journey to Iscandar, along with some of Captain Avatar's notes and log entries. We wrote a similar book about the first time the Comet Empire attacked, and we also wrote a book on the Rikasha Incident and the first coming of Ekogaru."

"I have all three of your books," said Desslok. "They're very good, if, by necessity, somewhat one-sided. You should read these books, Astrena. It gives a good insight to their thinking. They are actually far more subtle, committed, and sophisticated than even I thought. And Nova, you are a very good writer."

"Thank you," Nova said as she blushed.

"What else have you written, Nova?" said Astrena.

"A book of poetry that I illustrated, and a children's book," Nova said.

"And she's darn good," Derek said, making her blush again. Astrena had to hold back a giggle when she saw that Nova's blush went clear down her entire nude form to her toes. It looked…adorable. Astrena held back tears when she thought of the way Pellias had looked, as she saw in her mind a strange but compelling image of Nova walking naked in a meadow that looked just like the way Pellias had looked….before Ekogaru had destroyed it….in the vision, Nova's hair was longer, down her back, and she was holding hands with a naked little girl who looked to be about Ariel's age; the child wore only a pretty garland of Pellian _Arishke_ flowers about her neck. _Arishke_, which Astrena swore existed nowhere else in the Cosmos but Pellias, looked like daisies, but with a golden cast.

"Fascinating," said Desslok. "Astrena, as you were saying, about your children?"

"Yes. I have, in my fairly young three hundred of your years, borne Aliscea from my loins, fathered by Shardovan Gralnacsz, a traitor to what we held dear. More recently, from my loins have sprung Dellar and now Aisha, fathered by the Lord holding me. How old are you and the Commodore again?" asked Astrena.

"Thirty," Nova said. "Both of us…"

"By the gods, you two _are_ children," said Desslok softly. "Wildstar, unclad, you and Nova look exactly like young ones in your tweens; what we call young men and women before forty on Gamilon and Pellias."

"Actually, for humans, thirty is about the beginning of early middle age," Nova said. "Terrans do not live as long as your peoples do; our normal lifespans are between about seventy-five to a hundred and ten or so."

"No wonder you love so intensely; your lifespans are very short," said Astrena as she wiped away a tear. "You poor young ones," she said softly as a flash of insight came to her, and she realized, _Yes and no. Yes, your times shall come to you….but if you both pass through the Fire I see for both of you intact and choose to accept a great Gift, you will both be with us for a very, very long time…. _

"Mommy feels nice against Ariel," Ariel said as she cuddled against her mother. Nova switched breasts, and she shifted her weight down a little and she then began to touch Derek in a gentle, intimate fashion with her free hand, tenderly cradling Ariel's bare bottom as the toddler went up on her toes to nurse. Nova smiled softly, because Derek's member was soon touching her in a very sweet spot, too.

After a few tender moments, they slipped into the bath with Desslok, Astrena, and Aisha. Ariel asked to see Aisha, so Nova let her swim over to her, where Astrena held her and let her nurse from her a little while Ariel touched little Aisha, fascinated by her appearance, coos, the way she looked. "Your babies are just like ours, except they're a pretty shade of blue all over…"

"Well, you're getting to have a cute little tan shade all over you, Ariel, like your brother, and your parents…." said Astrena as Alex swam over to his mother, who let him nurse as she laid back in Derek's arms. Derek and Nova were still tenderly touching each other under the warm water as they cuddled. Astrena said to Ariel "Are you and your brother and parents out in your Sun often?"

Ariel nodded, as she stroked little Aisha, "Thanks to the Bolars, no cold days…"

"She's right," said Derek. "We have a beach near our house that we actually own part of. When we're home, we just walk down to swim and play in the sand a lot. We just about always go bare, too. People used to do that…before all the wars on Earth nearly ruined it. Now that we have the sun and beach and sky back, we are trying to appreciate it more."

"Gamilon and Earth are more like brothers than many people there desire to admit," said Desslok. "We have both suffered through disasters, we both have recovered, and we both care about protecting those we love as well as our homelands. Please pardon that gauche General who gave you such a hard time before with his insolence. He is under arrest; mostly unharmed, but he will be taught many lessons before I can fully trust him again."

"Don't make them too harsh," Nova said.

"Oh, no, dear. They shall be…appropriate," Desslok said.

Ariel kissed Astrena and Aisha, and she made Desslok smile by giving him an innocent kiss before splashing her way back to her mother, who soon had both of her children nursing in tandem at her breasts as Derek held them all, and they snuggled in a sweet, cute, and very tender scene.

* * *

Morning came, and the adults and children were dressed again by the servants in their clean clothes. Then, the Wildstars returned to their ship.

Nova and Derek knew that a sad parting would soon come aboard the _Argo_. A sad one, since Alex and Ariel would be taken off the ship by Sasha and Deke Wakefield, in a Jet Recon Boat. It had been arranged for the children to stay with them on Iscandar a few days while Commodore Wildstar allowed the _Argo_ to leave Gamilon and to head to Iscandar later that day, under the command of Eager as Officer of the Deck.

"Mommy, Daddy, we're gonna get to fly with Deekee and Auntie Sasha!" yelled little Alex as he jumped up and down in the little plain white space suit and boots that had just been made up for him (they looked a bit like a miniature Star Force uniform, without any markings). Ariel, clad in the same sort of clothes, hugged her mother's Star Force uniform-clad legs and said, "Mommy, I don't want to go…"

"Ariel, sweetheart, we can't take you down to the jungle in Gamilon with us," Nova cooed as she patted her daughter's helmeted head. "There are some very bad men down there that Daddy and I have to either catch…or get rid of." Nova didn't much like the latter possibility, but a talk she had had with Derek far into the night in their alcove on Gamilon when the children were asleep with the sweet sweat of lovemaking drying on their bodies had led to the conclusion that if Zoltar was captured, he should, if at all possible, be killed if he continued to resist after being captured. Nova finally agreed that, unless they had clear orders otherwise to take him alive for trial (which they did not) that Zoltar would probably be too dangerous to be allowed to live if he refused to come quietly, given his shape-changing abilities and other unknown powers and abilities. So, the couple had finally agreed that Zoltar, when they had him in their hands, would be subdued…and, if he continued to resist, then killed, by whichever one of them had the best opportunity to quickly and humanely shoot him in the head.

"Mommy, let me go with you, and let me at him with a _big rock_!" yelled Ariel.

Deke and Derek smiled at Ariel, with Deke thinking, _Yeah, she's got spirit…but a one-year old soldier is not very effective in battle…._

Nova kissed and hugged Ariel, and then, she let Sasha pull her away. Sasha was also holding little Star, and she distracted Ariel by letting the two girls play together. Still Ariel began to cry loudly when she saw her parents saluting Eager and turning away, followed by Stephen Sandor and Diane Sandor, who would also be coming with them on the mission.

"DADDY! MOMMY!" yelled little Alex as he tried to run after his parents and the Sandors, held in place only by Deke, who grabbed Alex's little shoulders said, "Hey! Easy, Alex. They'll be back…and they're gonna be all right."

A chime went off on the PA system, and a female voice that sounded like Nova's intoned, "_Argo_ Departing! _Argo_ Departing! Lieutenant Commander Eager now in acting command of this vessel. Your next agenda of the day will be departure for Iscandar at eleven hundred hours. That will be all."

A few minutes later, the Jet Recon Boat set to take the Wildstars, Sandors, and their light equipment and provisions to Gitranja Island was poised on the port side catapult, ready for takeoff. Nova tapped Derek on the shoulder as he made his pre-flight check and she said. "Look, Derek, There's Deke's boat on the starboard catapult!"

Derek looked over and saw the boat with Deke, Sasha, Alex, and Ariel aboard. Jonathan would meet them on Iscandar in about three days after his JSCC unit did a jungle training exercise on Iscandar and then took some surfing and water survival lessons before taking a few days' leave prior to the trip home. Derek saw Ariel waving, and he waved back, blinking out his own tears at the sight of his children going off on liberty in the care of their cousins while he and Nova…ran off into the Heart of Darkness in search of a terrorist, rapist and killer.

"Brace for takeoff!" Derek said as he spooled up the engines.

"Catapult engaged and locked," Nova said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice as she blinked back her tears at the sight of her son waving at her.

"Takeoff!" snapped Derek.

The Sandors held hands quietly as the Jet Recon Boat was catapulted off the _Argo's_ fantail with a hard kick, calculated for Gamilon's heavier gravity. Then, the boat roared off into the green sky, circling Desslok's capital with a swooping bank as they turned south, watching as the second Jet Recon Boat left the Argo, waggled its wings as Wakefield said "goodbye" and then turned west, heading far up into the sky towards Iscandar, which looked inviting, blue, and beautiful as it shimmered in the sky of Gamilon, with its Queen back home and on her throne again.

The four warriors in the boat looked at Desslok's city and the _Argo_ receding behind them, and Derek quietly said, "Once more unto the breach, comrades…"

"We'll get him," hissed Diane. "Now that we have that bastard trapped like a rat…"

"Yes, we _will_ get him," said Sandor as he nodded.

"To this," Nova said. "We pledge our lives…"

"…and our sacred honor," said Derek. He looked at his compass, and locked the Jet Recon Boat on course for Gitranja Island.

They would be there in an hour.

And the hunt would begin.

* * *

**VI. IN PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY…**

**Planet Gamilon**

**Gitranja Island, Near The Equator**

**August 28, 2208**

**1113 Hours: Standard Earth Space-Time**

* * *

The Jet Recon Boat had landed a while ago, near one of Gitranja Island's beaches, after Nova had taken the controls, made some life-sign scans, and had determined where the crash site was (eight kilometers or klicks into the interior) and where Zoltar and his men were (about two klicks away from the crash site, heading towards a lake northwest of the crash site)

The Wildstars were walking point, about a kilometer or so into the jungle, since they found that the growth was so thick, it was impossible even to drive the wheeled Jet Recon Boat into the jungle. So, like grunts in either World War II in the Pacific, or in Vietnam, they would have to go into the bush on foot to get Zoltar and his madmen.

Derek led the party, with his Astro-Automatic in hand; his minimal gear and some food bars and a canteen were in a fanny pack on his belt. Nova walked behind him, scanning for the enemy's life signs with a small remote version of her life-sign scanner on her back, worn like a pack; it was one of Sandor's newest toys from his workshop; she also wore a small fanny pack with some provisions, goodies, medical gear, fire-starting equipment, and her harmonica ensconced in her pack along with some instant coffee and spare power pack for her Astro-Automatic. Her combat gloves were in her fanny pack; it was easier for her to run her equipment without them on.

Diane Sandor came behind her, carrying a larger pack (per her request) with much of the party's food in it.

Finally, on the rear position, Stephen Sandor stealthily walked along, his strong frame also bearing a pack with gear, supplies, and some grenades.

"Well, stop. Hold," snapped Derek. "Nova, we're still on his trail?"

"Affirmative," she said. "Checking my scanner," she said as she looked at a portable wireless energy indicator in her hand connected by a tight frequency to her backpack. "I picked up traces of his heartbeat and brain activity….twelve klicks to the northwest. He's moving, but it's kinda slow…"

"With my energy indicator," said Sandor from the rear, as he held a device similar to what he had invented and used close to seven years ago when they had raided the original Cometine _Gatlantis _city-ship, "I'm picking up a constant, but slowly fading energy source ten klicks to the northwest, and two Gamilon signatures next to it. Wildstar, I think I found their ship."

"And the Gamilon signatures?" said Derek.

"Remember, Derek?" Nova said. "Desslok said he was going to send his men down there to check the wreck and take possession of it for salvage and intel purposes. I'm also picking up Gamilon lifesigns. Let's go there, first."

"I'll try radioing the Gamilons so they don't get trigger-happy and start shooting at us," said Derek.

"Smart idea, sir," said Diane from behind them. "Not that he was always this swift, Nova."

"What do you mean?" Nova asked, puzzled.

"I was with him once on a cadet exercise near a Gamilon destroyer wreck near Hokkaido when we were in the Academy together, Nova. Man, did he muff that exercise up!" Diane laughed.

"You're the one who screwed that up, Diane," Derek muttered.

"Sheesh," Nova said. "There you two go again. It's been _years_ since you two dated. Let it drop?"

"I'd let it drop, Peppermint, if _she_ would," snapped Derek.

"And I'd let it drop if he stopped playing Professor Know-It-All," said Diane.

"Guys, quit it," said Sandor. "Derek, you're in command here. Don't let her get under your skin."

"I used to, once," teased Diane.

"Diane, please _can_ it!" Stephen snapped as Derek went on forwards, leading Nova by the hand over a nasty outcrop, and ignoring the other two for the moment. Steve could make out comm signals going back and forth on Derek and Nova's private frequency, but he didn't care to eavesdrop. Stephen looked at his wife and said, "Listen. I know you and Wildstar have a history. We'll work much better as a team if you stop tweaking his nose every chance you get, tempting as it is. And tempting as it is for you to tease your friend Nova. I can see a certain fire in her eyes, and even though she looks nice and quiet and serene, don't tweak Her Nibs right now. She's doing what I should be doing right now; trying to find our foe so we can get him."

"I want him dead on sight," snapped Diane. "He raped me. I want _vengeance_!"

"I know you do, but Wildstar told us that we were to attempt to capture him, and kill him only if he continues substantial resistance once in our hands. Now, c'mon…we have to catch up to them," Sandor said.

"Roger that, Steve," Diane muttered.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the party was reunited near a stream. Derek stopped them with a hand up and said, "Now, listen up. I've contacted the Gamilons. They have a small party down there, and they know we're coming. They said that the enemy made a few hit-and-run raids to try to recapture that ship; they are not sure why, although I have a guess…"

"They must want to plant charges and blow it," said Stephen Sandor.

"Or they want to set off some kind of self-destruct mechanism?" Nova added.

"Good thinking, Nova," Sandor said, pleased at Nova's logical thinking. "Wildstar, is that what you were thinking?"

"Yeah. Nova and I were discussing that before when we went private frequency on you guys. The Gamilons are trying to secure a perimeter so they can keep the Spectrans from getting back there," Derek said. He stopped in mid-sentence as he said, "Yes, Colonel Damuk?"

Colonel Damuk, the Gamilon commander on the scene, said, "Commodore Wildstar, the operation is now being taken over by Higher Authority than myself, but I have been commended for my role in securing the area. The incoming commander has some material he is gleaning from the wreck that he said you would want to see and take back to your Government."

"Thank you, Colonel," said Derek. "We should be there in about twenty minutes. Any sign of them?"

"No, but we are keeping our eyes peeled, and we sent a _Lanzschalger_ patrol after them, too. They have orders to use extreme prejudice."

"Good," said Wildstar. "We'll see you soon. Wildstar out."

"I studied the Gamilon log notes of some of the war against us at Desslok's request last night when you were playing with Alex while I had Ariel in my lap at the breast," Nova said. Derek smiled at the memory; he thought Nova had simply looked adorable running a Gamilon computer semi-wet and nude with their daughter in her lap. "_Lanzschalgers_ are their version of SEAL strike forces that they send in to kill important forces or take _Prominente_ prisoners. We were on the opposite end of a party like that on Titan in 2199 when you found Alex's gun, Derek, remember? They won't play around if they get Zoltar."

"Yeah…if they get him before we do," said Derek.

* * *

Colonel Damuk, as it turned out, was a fair-skinned Gamilon officer of Iscandarian descent who looked a bit like some of the lighter-skinned Gamilons that the Star Force had encountered in the Solar System nearly eight years ago on the first leg of their long epic journey to Iscandar. Derek swallowed a little as the Gamilon officer saluted him upon his arrival, saying, "Pleased to see you. Commodore," in a somewhat nasal voice. Derek and his party returned the salute in Gamilon fashion with their hands up and at ninety-degree angles. Then, Damuk took Wildstar's hand and said, "We welcome you to Gitranja Island, sir. Not my idea of a paradise, but the Empire has to work in many sorts of places."

"It reminds me of the island of Guadalcanal on Earth, Colonel," Derek said. "Hot, nasty, buggy, not much better in 2203 than it was in 1942," Derek said. "Ask Nova. We did a survey there together once as a training exercise."

"Yes, and our uniforms were rotting off us after two weeks," Nova said with a laugh.

"Wow, sounds like fun for you guys," said Diane.

"Oh, be _quiet_!" snapped Nova.

"Ah, the humidity, it makes everyone nasty and cross here," said Damuk. "They've raided us three times today, sir. I got another one of their troopers twice, and I think I wounded Zoltar. He wears some kind of ridiculous mask that makes him look like a mountain lion or a Purple Doberman. Only an idiot would wear a close-fitting mask like that around here, Commodore."

"What's in the ship?" asked Derek, as he looked at the Spectran vessel, which was still smoking in some places. He saw Gamilons hitting parts of the wreck with firefighting foam to try and quench the smoldering electrical fires in the mass of twisted metal that the bat-like form of the _Matreaoar_ had become upon its crash on Gamilon.

"Intel of various sorts, types, and kinds…" said Damuk.

Suddenly, laser fire skipped in. Diane was almost hit.

Nova screamed, did a somersault, and dragged Diane with her behind a rock as Damuk snapped, "Wildstar! _Take cover_!"

Derek did so, after taking a quick mental count and noting that Nova and Diane had taken cover not far from him. He saw Sandor dropping his pack and unlimbering an AK-01 Rifle as green laser fire skipped in.

A Gamilon was hit, and he fell down with a quick yell; Derek saw his battle partner, in dark blue Garuman-style armor, gritting his teeth and firing back at the enemy.

Derek then heard a blood-curdling yell, and he saw a Spectran trooper in two-tone green rushing a Gamilon position and coming right for Nova and Diane's rock. He focused a bead on the Spectran through the blade-sights of his Astro-Automatic, and he pumped a shot into his, with Nova following up with a shot that splattered the Spectran Trooper Freca's brains all over the place. Nova had cured Freca quite permanently of his diarrhea by killing him!

"Good shooting, Commander," he said over their private frequency.

"Derek, watch the trees; I see two more of them," Nova said.

Derek turned, snarling as he saw movement.

In the meantime, Stephen Sandor was shooting at a Spectran who refused to give up. The Spectran was hidden behind a large tree, and he was Zoltar's 'friend' Sergeant Brava, who somehow knew Terran standard. He yelled, at Sandor. "You tall fuck-face stupid Earthling! Come here so I can blow your head off!"

"You be quiet!" snapped Sandor as he fired a shot at him, having taken cover behind a tree stump that looked partly and recently broken off and carbonized due to the crash of the Spectran ship.

Remembering something from Terran culture, Brava yelled back. "Earthling! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of rotting elderberries and used condomiums!"

"Drop dead!" yelled Sandor as he fired back.

Brava took a hit to his hand, but he still had enough fight to scream at Sandor. "Earthling! Your wife smells like rotting Limburger cheese and your children will chew Oxygum!" Then, he fired at Sandor again as he ignored a sound behind him. _Just Zoltar, I bet,_ he said.

Sandor fired back, and he yelled back, "Who's yelling insults now, you idiot?"

"You idiot with the Blue Arrow! Tell those women with the orange arrow and the black arrow to surrender to me now and commence undressing! I haven't had a slut in two years!" he yelled as he fired at Sandor.

"Neither of those women are sluts!" snapped back Sandor. He fired at the man, who broke cover and ran at him, screaming like mad.

Sandor tried to take further cover from the maniac's hail of laser fire, but as he fired, he heard the Spectran screaming (in language that betrayed his poor command of Terran Standard English), "Idiota! I'm going to turn you into a dead baby and your brain pan into a roasted _halupki_ cabbage made with used _dried fish meal_!"

Sandor kept on firing, but, even as he did, someone's well-aimed shot hit the Spectran in the heart.

Pleasantly surprised, Sandor stood up, running back-on into Leader Desslok!

"Nice seeing you here, sir," said Sandor.

"I couldn't stand that fool's attempts at insults," said Desslok who stood there with his blaster at the ready. "I know very well you do not put fish meal anywhere near _halupki_. It's a desecration of Slavic food."

"Did you see Zoltar?" snapped Sandor.

"I almost got him myself," Desslok said smoothly. "He ran from his men like a rat. What sort of a commander is that?"

"An idiot," said Sandor as he saw a screaming Spectran trying to attack Nova and Diane's rock. Diane shot down the Spectran, our friend Kivar, with a blood-curdling scream.

Nova screamed as another Spectran grabbed her lifesign scanner pack and tried to drag her off caveman-style along with it.

"_Damn_ you!" Nova yelled as she popped a quick-release buckle on the pack and squirmed out of it as the Spectran held it in his hands and tried to brain her with her own equipment. Nova fired at his head, but the Spectran grabbed her wrist and painfully forced her to drop her own weapon.

Nova, however, was far from helpless. As Derek caught the fight and yelled "NOVA!", Nova just gritted her teeth and aimed a good hard judo kick at her own sensor unit. Her booted foot broke the plastic casing, and the Spectran staggered onto his back.

Nova then jumped on him, breaking his kneecaps with her boots, and she pulled the pack out of his hand, ripped it away, and went for where she guessed the bridge of his nose was with her now-gloved hands as Diane kicked the Spectran in the crotch.

Nova smashed in his nose, almost driving it up into his brain, leaving just enough time for Derek to run up to her aid and Diane's as he put his weapon to the Spectran's head, and yelled, "You going to surrender?"

"May Zoltar eat your shit, and I wanted to tell you that Babe Ruth sucks!" yelled the Spectran as he stood there with his hands up after Nova took his weapon. Blood rolled down his face due to his shattered nose. A moment later, he tried to kick Derek and escape. He and Nova forced him down to the ground as Derek stood there with his weapon against his head while Nova put a foot onto his butt.

"Oh, shut UP! Babe Ruth has been dead for over two hundred years!" snapped Derek as he blew the Spectran's brains out as he continued to resist after Nova kicked him. He caught his breath as both Nova and Diane gave him a grateful hug, at once.

"Yeah, thanks, ladies," he said, giving Diane an encouraging pat on the back and Nova an affectionate pat on the bottom as he turned around and saluted Desslok as he came up with Sandor. "Steve, how many of them did we get?"

"We got the small fry, but the big fish got away," said Sandor as he shook his head.

"Zoltar was spotted running into the Kitresskian Valley," said Desslok.

"Where's that?" said Derek.

"Some of our most inaccessible country on this island," Desslok said pleasantly. "We can't get even our speeder bikes in there. You have to go down that river gully; on foot, and treading carefully. It is a mess of bogs in there."

"It may be better, sir, to wait until he comes out in the clearing that the valley ends in," said Colonel Damuk. "It is not that far from our Survey Outpost Two."

"No, a determined man who could live off the land could stay in the Kitresskian Valley for months," Desslok said. "I sent in a group of six _Lanzschlagers_ ahead of you, Wildstar. They are heading on the west side of the valley, to try and head Zoltar off. You may want to go the outer route, up the east side…"

"Sir, they'll need battle armor, supplies…." Damuk said.

"Which they may not need if they can catch up with Zoltar in the next day or so," said Desslok. "Wildstar?"

Derek talked with Steve, Nova, and Diane in a huddle, and then said, "We want to get him while the trail is still hot, Desslok. Show us the way and we'll go in."

"Thank you. My men will help secure the intelligence from this wreck and share it with you," Desslok said. "Best of luck, Wildstar…"

"You too, Desslok," said Derek.

At that, they parted as Derek and the others ran off into the valley.

Damuk looked at Desslok. "Sir, if they stay in there in that deep bush past two days, things will start becoming very unpleasant for them. You _do _know that?"

"I have confidence in them that they will find him in one or two days," said Desslok. "As for me, even if they don't….I went into that extremely hot and humid valley myself with Astrena a year after Gamilon was reborn. We suffered no…permanent damage….granted, we came out nude, with bug bites on our persons; it can be rather amusing if you have a loved one with you to share the effects of the acidic humidity. If they find Zoltar in that condition, it will be even more amusing before they kill him. He'll end up in worse shape than they will!" Desslok then laughed a loud, pealing, maniacal laugh.

* * *

**VII. BUNGLE IN THE JUNGLE**

**Planet Gamilon**

**Gitranja Island, Near The Equator**

**August 30, 2208**

**0205 Hours: Standard Earth Space-Time**

* * *

"Derek?"

"Yeah, Nova?" he said in the dark in the thick jungle of the Kitresskian Valley on Gitranja. It just so happened that on this side of Gamilon, their time coincided with Gamilon time. Here, it was hot even in the middle of the night.

"Remind me never to call Guadalcanal a hellhole again. _This_ place is a hellhole…" Nova said.

"Yeah, and you had to break your own Nifty-Difty sensor pack in that fight with that goon," said Diane Sandor as she trudged up a hill in the dark, illuminated only by the light of the stars and of Iscandar hanging off in the sky.

"If you have Ranger training, you can find anyone, at anytime, even in the dark," Nova snapped. "And both Derek and I have that training."

"My uniform has a hole in it; look," said Diane as she showed her bare shoulder.

"How did you get that?" said Sandor.

"After that last rainstorm we were in; it just ripped," said Diane as she trudged through the ground cover and mud. They had been slogging through this valley for the past twenty-four hours, following Zoltar's trail. It was mostly on their side of the valley, it turned out. The Gamilon _Lanzschalger _party on the other side of the valley kept in occasional touch by radio, and sent back what intel they could glean. Derek thus found out they had almost had Zoltar once, to no avail.

Zoltar, it seemed, was very good at surviving in crap territory. And he was crazy. Like a fox. His trail went all over the place.

Derek stopped the group with a hand up. "Hmmm," he said. "I can see Zoltar's boot prints go all the way here, to this formation of rocks."

"Then they stop," Nova said, looking hard at the tracks.

"Where do you guys think he went?" said Diane as she ran up. She had taken _some_ Ranger training, but hadn't completed the course like both Wildstars had.

Derek looked at the rocks as Stephen came up. He and Sandor looked at each other and said, "Over there, Derek…."

"Handholds," Derek said. "Nova, I'm going up. You're good at this, so you come right behind me. Diane, stay back here with Steve…"

Diane saluted as Derek began to climb up the rocks, followed by Nova. Both of them were almost supernaturally good at finding finger holds and toeholds in the rock crevasses.

They got over the rock formation. A moment later, Sandor heard Derek in his helmet radio. "Follow our lead. We found something over here."

"What is it?" Steve said.

"Nova found something dropped on a handhold. A Spectra Pin. That weird demon-head emblem they use. Unfortunately, we're right against a bog…."

"Water over mud," Nova said. "Could be quicksand."

"How are we getting over that?" Diane said.

"Rope," Derek said as Nova got a coil of rope out of her pack. She tied one end to a tree and the other end against her waist.

"Rope?" asked Diane.

"I'm going to tiptoe through the bog over to that tall palm tree, or thing that looks like one," Nova said. "When I get across, I'm trying the other end. Everyone else can then go safely across the bog hand-over-hand. It's only about twelve meters long, by my guesstimate. Easy stuff."

Nova kissed Derek quickly and began to walk carefully through the bog. She used her legs and feet and an experienced feel of the ground (picked up ever since about three by family camping trips in and around the Rockies; she had the most backwoods experience of the group).

About five meters in, she reached a point where even her sure legs hit a snag. Derek saw her stopping and tugging at one of her legs. "Nova?" he said.

"Damn, made a little mistake. Right leg's caught in quicksand. A good tug should get me out; I'm only in halfway up my calf and I have a great hold with my other foot…"

Nova tugged with all her strength (her long legs were the strongest part of her anatomy, luckily) and she suddenly said, "Damn!" as she pulled her foot out.

"You okay?" Derek said.

Nova looked down at her right foot. "My foot came out, but my boot didn't," Nova said. She had on no socks, so she giggled a little as she wiggled her bare toes in the mud. "I have a better feel for it with my shoe off, actually. Sort of gritty. It's not cold, and it starts to dry out a few meters away, I think….feels more like beach sand by the tide line," she said, thinking of her extensive beach front survey experience. For beach walks, except if it was very cold, she preferred going barefoot on a beach almost year-round.

Then, Nova amused a watching Diane as she reached down to her left boot and undid it, pulled it off her foot, and threw it away and just went barefoot. "This makes more sense in this mud and crap. Yeah, just like I thought," Nova said. "Derek, it's not as bad a meter up…ground's more solid. If I go slowly, I should not risk any more quicksand."

"Go for it," he said.

Nova gave Derek a thumbs-up, and she went on.

* * *

They were all over the rock formation a while later as it got close to 0400 in the morning.

As Derek had been climbing, his pants suddenly ripped. Nova giggled a little as she saw her husband's boxer shorts showing at his butt.

"What's so funny, Nova?" he asked.

"Now, we can all see what I see every night. You wear those cute standard-issue stripey boxers. Aren't they cute, Diane?"

"Yeah, he always used to wear them," Diane said back. Both women giggled as Derek began to blush.

"Too bad they didn't rip in the _front_, Derek," Nova whispered affectionately in his ear. Then, she raised her arm, and her uniform ripped.

Right over her breast.

"OHH!" Nova said as she blushed. Most of her right breast…and her right nipple (since she went braless in the heat) …was now out in the open in the warm night. She tried to pull it closed, but it was impossible as Steve laughed good-naturedly at her predicament.

Nova gave him a light kick, and said, "Would you guys think this was funny if it happened to _you_?"

Derek said, "Nova, it's karma. You were just teasing about how you wish my pants had ripped in the front a minute ago…."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Nova sighed. She carefully (and quietly) squashed a mosquito that had landed on part of her now-bare shoulder when they all heard insane, blood-curdling laughter in the middle of the night.

Three shots rang out. Lasers.

One almost hit Steve, one hit Diane. Nova hit the dirt, and Derek took cover behind a rock.

Derek returned fire at once, feeling his shirt ripping at his left side as Zoltar's insane voice yelled, "Four little birdies all in a pot! There were five, but I ate him for lunch! Condor Meat is so nice and sweet! But Swan Meat around my legs is REALLY SWEET!" The insane laugher came again as something like an ugly star shuriken was thrown as Derek and then at Nova.

Derek returned fire again, screaming, "Come back, you rotten _coward_!" as Zoltar was heard loudly running away in the dark.

"Which way did he go?" snapped Derek.

"Wildstar, we'll find his trail in the morning. There's barely any light left," Steve said.

Then, Derek raged, "COWARD!" It was only then, that he looked down and saw that his shirt was ripped and most of the left side of his chest was now bare. He said, "Hey, Nova…look…"

Nova came up and laughed. "I got the right side….you got the left side…we match!" She then climbed over the rock and gave him a kiss. "I have some stuff left in the canteen. You'll need a drink after that…"

Derek kissed Nova back and took the water. "Oh! You too, Sandor!"

"Which one?" said Steve with a crazed chuckle. Steve came up out of a bog with half his shirt torn off and a boot gone (his left one). He was now half-barefoot like Nova. "I'm losing things from the front."

"And I'm trying to cover my ASS!" yelled Diane as she ran up. "Literally!" she yelled as she turned around and showed her bare butt to the group.

Nova immediately got playful and shielded Derek's eyes from Diane's posterior. Diane screamed, over Nova's laughter. "What the hell is causing this? And stop laughing, Peppermint Patty! You might be fucking NEXT, dear!"

"Hmmm.." said Stephen as part of his pants leg tore off and Diane laughed. "The rain that was hitting us is probably from that volcanic region the next island over that we saw flying in here. The rain must have a high acid content, along with the humidity. A little reminder of what Gamilon was like before Ekogaru accidentally improved it…"

Nova then screamed, "ARRRRRGGHH! Derek! There's something in my HAIR!"

"What?" Derek said. He ran over to Nova and looked. She had her helmet off to try and cool off, and as she shook her hair like crazy, something big, grey and with a thousand legs landed right on her bare right foot. While making the worst girly "eeeww, there's an icky bug on me" noises any one of them _ever_ had heard her make, Derek helped Nova get a massive centipede off her body. "It was horrible," Nova said. "Derek…that…thing….was eating my hair! _Right off me_!"

"Hmmm...wildlife attracted to dead skin, and body hair," said Steve. "Wildstar, Desslok told me about those things in passing before we split up."

"Stephen Sandor, are you saying that I have _dandruff_?" Nova primly snapped, insulted, before she put her helmet back on. "Cripes Almighty, you guys!" she huffed.

"No, everyone has dead skin on their scalp," said Derek. "Even you do, Mrs. Neatnik who sometimes takes two showers a day because you feel icky."

"Derek, in my nursing work, I sometimes get shit and piss on me," Nova snapped. "Do you want me to walk around you and the kids smelling like some Goddamn bedpan?"

"Okay, you have a point; sorry," Derek said as Nova glared at him. Diane glared at all three of them and took off.

"Where are you going?" snapped Sandor.

"The three of you _suck _right now!" snapped Diane. "Let me go off and have a good cry because my ass is showing! All right, Steve? BUG OFF!"

Steve was about to follow, until Nova grabbed him by the arm. "Stephen. Martial Rule 101. Partner takes off in a snit; let them go. They'll calm down and come back eventually. He always does," she said, pointing at Derek.

"What about when _you_ tear off in that rattletrap Fiat?" Derek smirked.

"Okay, I have a temper like you do! I admit it!" Nova snapped. "Now, let us say, a "curse on the stiff necks of men and women" and chill out a bit!"

"Heat, humidity; irritability," said Derek.

"Yeah, same thing that did in the Donner Party, except that it was cold" said Steve.

"What happened to the Donner Party?" asked Derek as he sat down to eat a food bar. "You know, these things are running out? Three more days, and we'll have to start seeing what around here is good to eat."

"Yeah, let's use Diane to test everything," Nova teased as she knelt down on her haunches to grab something from her pack. As she got her harmonica, the right legging of her uniform ripped loudly. Both men laughed as the right side of Nova's bottom was suddenly bared as the severed legging slid down Nova's bare leg to her foot like a discarded stocking. She blushed, and as she got up, the crotch of her weakened uniform also blew open. Just enough of a tail of cloth hung over her attributes to keep Nova clothed like some deranged version of Jane in a Tarzan movie.

"Hmmm," said Steve. "You go commando. How interesting."

"Okay, now we can compare my butt with Diane's," Nova said, chuckling a little. It was that, or start crying. "If we keep up this hunt, any bets yet on who ends up doing this deranged mission first in the nude?"

"Zoltar would think that was awfully funny," sniffed Derek.

Nova chuckled. "The glimpse I got of Zoltar when you were firing at him, Derek?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think he was wearing any pants," Nova said. "And he goes commando, too."

"Oh, Christ almighty, half-naked rapist ruining around the woods with my half-naked wife," Derek said, as he stood up, and more of his Star Force shirt ripped off.

Sandor groaned as Nova whistled appreciatetively "_Love_ the view, Skipper."

"Likewise," said Derek.

* * *

Morning came a few hours later.

Stephen went to look for Diane, and he found her and convinced her to come back to the mission. When they came back, they found Derek and Nova fast asleep, looking like two kittens that had curled up against each other for protection.

"Ohh…how cute!" said Diane as she pointed at the sleeping couple. "What do we do?"

"Let them sleep an hour, and then, we'll wake them up. I found a trace of Zoltar….footprints, and part of his…cape…"

"Well, don't we have to go after him?" Diane said

Half of Steve's shirt was ripped now, too. He finally gave up, and ripped away the rags of his shirt as a transmission crackled in his helmet radio.

"Commander Sandor speaking," he said in his low, analytical voice.

"Commander, this is Leftenant Wayza, Gamilon Imperial Forces. We spotted Zoltar on our side of the gully a while ago. There was a firefight, and we wounded him,. He took off. But the pursuit is slowed now as we wounded his leg. He may be on your side of the river valley eventually if he can swim across. We're pausing to treat our own wounded. Where is your Commodore Wildstar?"

"Asleep," said Steve. "Even the Cowboy of Outer Space has to sleep sometime," he said as he yawned.

"Let the man sleep. We'll take this up later," said Wayza.

"Over and out," said Sandor.

"Have you been in touch with the _Argo_?" asked Diane.

"We were. Homer called Wildstar a while ago with a routine report. They're safe on Iscandar. Last I heard…they were sending shore patrol parties to the beach for liberty," replied Steve.

"Mmmmmm," they heard as they heard someone rustling awake. From the high-pitched sigh, it did not sound like Derek.

Steve looked over and he and Diane saw Nova walking down a trail, gloves and helmets off, in what was rapidly becoming the Uniform of the Day for this party; rags.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," Nova said. "I see Derek is still asleep. Who's in command?"

"Me, Peppermint," said Steve. "Unless I fall asleep, kiddo. Then, you're in command."

"Good, more to worry about," yawned Nova. "Did you tell Derek about what happened to the Donner Party yet?"

"No, he fell asleep," said Diane. "You look remarkably chipper for a lady who is getting bug bites on her here and there," said Diane.

"You'll have some soon, too, and I'll tell Derek about the Donner Party later on," Nova teased. "I'll tell you what this mission is reminding me of; an old Jethro Tull song…"

"Which one?" Steve said.

"Bungle in the Jungle," Nova said. "It goes like this…"

Then, Nova began to sing, as she walked back and forth,

_Walking through forests of palm tree apartments_

_Scoff at the monkeys who live in their dark tents_

_Down by the waterhole drunk every Friday…_

_Eating their nuts—saving their raisins for Sunday_

_Lions and Tigers who wait in the shadows_

_They're fast but they're lazy and sleep in green meadows…._

Diane put her head in her hands and laughed….

….as her uniform top ripped and both of her breasts popped out.

Nova blushed and laughed at Diane as she tried to cover herself. "Oh! _You_ went commando, too!"

"Shut up, Nova…"

"I'm not laughing at you, I think the whole situation is funny!"

"Nova, shut UP!" yelled Diane, who pulled off one of her own boots and threw it at Nova. It landed in the river and drifted away fast.

"Arrrghhh!" yelled Diane. Realizing that she would be no good running half-barefoot, Diane took off her other boot and also threw it at Nova, who tried to catch it, but squealed as more of her uniform ripped away. This time, the collar of her uniform gave way, and, a moment later, Nova's whole chest was bare to the group.

Nova then stretched, and the remains of her uniform at her left shoulder parted and the whole uniform slid down her body to the ground.

Nova saw Diane and Steve holding back giggles as she stood there in the nude except for her gun belt.

Derek woke up and looked aghast at Nova as she smiled, blushed, and said, "Well, it _is_ cooler this way. And it makes swimming much easier if I have to jump in…right?"

"Nova…uhhh…what happened?"

"Easy, My uniform's mean time before failure expired," she said softly. "Now, let's hope my skin does not go the same way…and…."

"And what?" yawned Derek. He sat up….and his pants and underwear just…exploded. A moment later, Derek was just as nude as Nova, at least down to his knees.

He wiggled his toes up, and they burst right out of his boots as Nova laughed.

"Why are you _laughing_ at me?" Derek said as the others laughed.

"Because you were so cute when that happened!" Nova said. Thinking of a way to defuse the situation, she looked around, and then shed her gun belt and wedding band, setting them on the ground.

Then, Nova stood by the river's edge, as naked as the day she was born, as she said, "C'mon, Derek! Hurry up and strip! That goes for the rest of you, too! Last one in is a rotten Balan turtle!" she yelled as she ran off and jumped into the river.

Fuming angrily, Derek threw off his things and followed his madcap wife naked into the water.

Then, they had a nice, cooling swim.

* * *

The hunt for Zoltar continued.

During Nova and Derek's swim, Nova had actually found one of Zoltar's boots on a little muddy island in the river while she stopped there to (as her children put it) "go potty".

When they got out, Derek had the party draw straws to determine which of them would rotate being ready to swim at a moment's notice, since Derek and Nova noticed that he seemed to be keeping close by the river. Nova drew the short straw, so Derek and Steve carried her things between them, allowing her to go completely naked, unencumbered even by a weapon or helmet, in order to enable her to jump into the water at any time. Clothing was now actually a non-issue for both Wildstars, since the remainder of Derek's Star Force shirt ripped into pieces as soon as he put it on. Diane thought this was so funny that Derek was strongly tempted to just grab the brassy redhead and enlist Nova's aid in tearing her rags off while asking, "Hey! Now how do you like it, Diane?" Thus, Derek joined Nova in essentially having to go naked in the jungle.

The party walked in the relatively cool mud of the river (as Steve had finally shed his other boot, both of his bionic feet were bare now, and all four of them were now barefoot) while Nova jumped in and out of the water to swim for clues, since, at times, Zoltar's demented trail went right into the river in spots.

They gathered another clue when Nova submerged for a dive on a hunch and emerged a moment later with Zoltar's belt buckle. She said, "Now we know how he's getting around. He's swimming for it. Should we start seeing if we can make a raft and play 'going down the Mississippi' to catch him, since we don't have any boat?"

"That'd be a good idea, Peppermint, except that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn did not run around buck naked like we are becoming…" sniffed Diane.

"Did you ever read _Tom Sawyer_?" Nova asked. "They had lots of scenes of, "_And the boys discarded their britches and clothes to go swimming and play at being pirates_," huffed Nova.

"Yeah, whatever, smartass," said Diane.

"Smartass?" said Nova as she shook water out of her hair. "Excuuuse me…"

Nova then tripped Diane and made her fall into the water in her rags.

"Damn you, Nova! My rags are going to fall off!"

"I think that's the idea!" laughed Steve as Diane fought in the water, swam a bit, and finally came out of the water almost as bare as Nova, in only her gun belt, as all three of them laughed and applauded.

Diane got out of the water, gave the cuddling Wildstars a look that would kill, and, grinning, she ran up to Steve….

…and brassily ripped down all that remained of his pants! (which happened to be nothing more than a loincloth)

"HEY!" he yelled indignantly. Both Wildstars clapped and whistled as Diane pulled Steve's belt out of what was left of his uniform and said, "Is this yours? You need this on, Stephen…"

"Yeah…right," he said. He looked over at Derek. "Hey, Wildstar, how do you get this up nice and high so it doesn't hit your….uhhh…"

"Your p-chan?" Derek said with an evil grin. "Get one side over your shoulder and get the other side against your hip, like a Sam Browne belt or a Masonic baldric. Let the gun hang down there, at your hip. That way, it doesn't hit your space probe. Nova fixed me up like that before when I lost my pants. There. It looks weird, but it works."

"Nothing more to find in the water, Derek," Nova said. "Except….leaf-leeches…"

"Leeches?" said Diane. "Ewwwwww! Nova! You've got one right on your back!"

"Now how do you get that off?" Steve said.

"Use your fingernail and get it at the point…or points…where this thing is sucking at me," Nova said. "C'mon, Derek…you too, Steve, Diane. We're all naked now, it doesn't help to be squidgy about this. Just grab…start working…."

Derek and Diane had the best idea of how to get Nova free of the leech. Steve was the most reluctant to touch Nova in her state of undress, but even he had to help Derek and Diane…because it looked like they would soon kill each other and poor Mrs. Wildstar would be in the middle of their goofy ex-boyfriend/girlfriend fight. Nova was eventually de-leeched, and Derek and Steve then helped to clean and dress the wounds after Nova's bleeding stopped with some small bandages from her fanny pack medkit while Diane stood there, useless in cleaning and comforting Nova, and thinking, _They wouldn't do that for me, I bet. They're helping Nova because she's cute, smart, needy and popular. You two men are both jackasses!_

A while later, while looking at some of the blood that had run around to the front of her thigh from her experience with the leech, Nova said, "Derek, did you ever hear of the Donner Party?"

"No, I haven't. Why do you guys keep on bringing them up?"

Nova sighed, "Derek, the Donner Party was a group of old North American pioneers who set out for California in the Nineteenth Century in a wagon train."

"Oh, is this another one of your Old West stories?"

Nova nodded, wiggling her toes as she continued. "This party, delayed by a series of mishaps, ended up spending the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Some of them resorted to cannibalism to survive, eating those who had succumbed to starvation and sickness…."

"You forgot to tell them the part about Hannibal Lecter, Nova," said Diane with a grin.

"Diane, Hannibal Lecter was not with the Donner Party!" Nova snapped. "He was a fictional character. These were poor unfortunate souls driven to eat people to survive!"

"Thanks, Nova, you just put me off my Granola Bar," said Derek.

Nova sighed and said, "I'm so sorry…"

Diane looked at them and began to sing _Poor Unfortunate Souls_ from _The Little Mermaid_, beginning with, "I admit that in the past I've been a nasty…They weren't kidding when they called me well….a witch…"

Nova pulled out her harmonica and began to softly play along as Diane continued with, "_But you'll find that nowadays, I've mended all my ways, Repented, seen the light and made a switch…True?"_

"_We don't know…"_ Nova improvised with a grin as Diane kicked her. The two of them then continued the song, with Nova tootling away on her harmonica, not singing again until the part where Ariel and Ursula had their conversation in the song, where Nova sang Ariel's part while Diane kept in character as Ursula in her deep, slightly scratchy, sultry voice. When they finally finished, Derek and Steve applauded.

"Nice job, you two," said Steve.

"Yeah, let's hope we didn't entertain Zoltar with that," grunted Derek as Nova put away her harmonica.

* * *

They didn't. Their quarry was not there, although they did not know that. They spent the rest of the day like that, hunting for the elusive Zoltar.

Diane drew the short straw, so she went in to swim, found another rag and a button of Zoltar's and got a leech, and got cared for by Steve and Nova. Diane and Derek were heavily on the outs by now. He would not help in the leech removal until Nova stamped her foot in the mud and screamed at Derek to "Get off your flag officer's high horse, and help! And don't be worried about my being jealous, either! I'm right beside you, you macho chowderhead!"

Diane rolled up her eyes as the Wildstars helped her, while continuing their lovers' spat without dropping a single beat, and then making up with a quick squeeze of their hands while they both comforted Diane and left her alone, crying in Steve's arms.

Nova then walked off with Derek a while later and said, "You know what I think Diane's problem is, Derek?"

"You, the wife, are going to psychoanalyze crazy ex-girlfriend?" huffed Derek.

Nova sighed as she stood naked under the stars in the hot night on her toes in the mud with her weapon in her hand. Then, she looked up at the stars and realized she had dreamed this scene a few weeks ago.

_This is weird,_ she thought. _A dream that predicted my future._

Nova then continued by saying, "Well, I am the only other woman here, so I have an idea of what Diane is going through and feeling. I just keep it inside better than she does, even with you concerned, because I've been with you longer than Diane has been with Steve, and we were boyfriend and girlfriend and comrades years before that, so I sort of know you better than Diane does now, or than she knows her new husband. Derek, she's as angry as hell because of the rape, and she is a textbook example of the psychological principle of projecting right now. To wit, she is projecting all the rage she feels at Zoltar onto you, because you are the "bad-guy" ex in her head, then on me, because I've long ago replaced her in your affections, and then on Steve, because he is the husband who is not doing enough to protect and help her while she is screaming for attention by acting out like an eighteen-year old cadet. I almost got raped by Zoltar, and I'm livid every time I think of that animal's hands on me, and how he and Stone ended up on the same side framing me, stripping me, and shaming me in that police station. When we get him, part of me hopes he does resist so we can just kill him like the way we should kill Ekogaru someday."

"Nova, you want to kill him?"

Nova nodded. "It's not like me…to want vengeance like this. I didn't even necessarily want Desslok or Prince Zordar dead when we fought them. I just wanted them defeated and the war over. In fact, I hated Invidia when we fought _her_, and it struck me that even though she died at the end, and even though she tried to actually kill me face-to-face, I sort of felt sorry for her at the end when she evidently saw Ekogaru was using her, like he used so many others, like Cha'rif…the rest of the Rikashans, Lord Zaden, and even my crazy Aunt Yvona. It would have been sort of nice to see Invidia fight with us against him and then we could have forgiven each other. Or something. But Ekogaru himself? And Zoltar? What they did to us is beyond forgivable. I want them nice and dead."

"So, your point, Nova is?"

"Derek, I know Diane is a horrible pain of a person at times. Let up on her a little. And who knows? Help her past this, and you two can even maybe, become friends someday. Not lovers, again, mind you. Do that to me and I'll turn you into a taxidermy project," Nova said as she gave her husband a pat on his bare bottom.

"Okay, thanks…" said Derek. They raised their faceplates, and then kissed.

Almost, then, as they embraced, almost….

They almost just threw off their helmets and felt like making love right there by the river.

Instead, Derek kissed Nova, tore himself away, and said, "We have some more patrolling to do. Rain check?"

Nova kissed him back. "Rain check, Wait until….we're really alone….."

* * *

Finally, evening passed into night.

It was now August 31, 2208, and the time was 0100 in the morning.

The party had gotten closer to Zoltar, and they had briefly seen him and exchanged shots at about 2300 on the 30th, but then he had disappeared into the mist in the middle of the river.

On the island on Gamilon, the Derek, Nova, Steve, and Diane, now finally stripped of their rags, sat around their camp on Gitranja Island with their helmets, gloves, gun belts, and packs off. All modesty was gone, and now, all four of them went entirely naked in the hot, humid night air.

"Well, guess what," quipped Diane. "Now, we all can all stop and openly look at what we've been trying to hide the past three days under those rags."

"Whoopee," laughed Steve. "Of course, thanks to those visits to the beach, we all know what we look like naked, anyway. Of course, with Nova here and her twins….well, it's almost par for the course to see a breastfeeding mother naked with their babies at some point, especially in the current hot conditions back home on Earth with that angry Sun."

"Especially when she has twins," Nova said as she looked down at her breasts. They were firm, a little larger than usual, and engorged with milk. "I….."

Then, a moment later, the question of just how engorged her breasts were manifested itself as both of Nova's unclothed nipples spurted some milk. She blushed a bit….this had happened before…but, except for some times in front of Derek, the kids, and their pediatrician, it had not happened while she had been undressed in front of others.

This time, since Nova was in the nude, it was impossible to hide. "LOOK at me…I'm…."

Diane laughed softly while Steve said, "Nova, I've seen nursing mothers doing that before in the underground cities and the planet bombing evacuations. In Japan, I was around a family with a mother and baby who had to flee their homes right from the bath during the bombings. Since nothing could be spared, except for some rags, they were both naked, and I saw that happening before the mother fed her baby. It's a good thing it was not too cold, and it is nothing in particular to be embarrassed about."

Nova took a deep breath. "Okay, Steve…Derek…it hurts...I…"

"Nova, let's go off someplace quiet," Derek said. "I'll take care of that for you," he said as he led Nova away. She kissed him and they went off alone.

"Now what are they going to do?" mused Steve.

"Whatever it is, I have an idea," laughed Diane. "And I think that they're going to have a very sweet little sexy interlude while doing it. How cute…"

Diane smiled at Steve, and she came up to him and kissed him.

"Now, that's cute…" said Steve.

Diane laughed as she said, "Now play with _my_ breasts…Steeve…."

That is what he did. It was not hard, since, of course, Diane was also naked.

* * *

Derek and Nova walked along hand in hand for a while until they found a nice spot. Once there, they kissed, took off their gear, and set it by a tree.

"This should be good," Derek said. "I think we're about half a kilometer away from them."

"No sign of Zoltar?" Nova said.

"None. As you said before, the trail seems to have gone cold after he went over the river…."

When they were alone, they knelt down in the slightly muddy soil together. Then, he said, "I'll be able to drain that milk for you, darling…like the way we had to that one day when your mom had Alex and Ariel, and you were swimming at home and you began to hurt like this?"

Nova nodded, smiling slightly as she said, "I believe I was dressed like this, then?"

Derek said, "Yes, my dear, you were very naked, and very beautiful… Just like this," he said as he kissed her shoulders, and then began to tenderly play with her breasts.

Nova smiled a little, and then, she shut her eyes as her husband gently kissed one of her nipples…and began to suck at her.

"mmmmm…that feels _good_," Nova whispered. Derek went from the left to the right breast and then back again, and the milk flowed from Nova's body without any shame now since they were alone.

When he took her right breast again, Derek slipped his hand up his wife's crotch. Nova moaned and shivered as the stimulation of her unclad rosette helped the milk flow. She opened her eyes, looked down between Derek's legs, and smiled softly. He was getting a very nice, cute erection. Nova smiled as she observed that her dear husband's manhood was urgently pressing against her thigh.

"Nova, how do you feel?" whispered Derek.

"Good. So good. You're…so sweet to me…."

Nova kissed him and she said, "I see you're…rising…to the occasion, dearest," as she began to kiss his chest while he continued to suck the warm milk from her breast to relieve her pressure while Nova grasped his member and tenderly played with him in the warm night…just as Derek continued to caress her naked womanhood on the island and make her feel wonderful.

Derek smiled at Nova and said, "This reminds me of when you take my sample every year…you know what I mean…"

"I sure do," Nova said with a delightful shiver as Derek continued to touch her, and while she pleasured him. An EDF medical requirement for male pilots and maintenance workers who had to undergo space duty and frequent EVA's and the possibility of exposure to radiation was to have a sperm sample taken for a count. Nova, when she ran such exams, usually had a Petri dish, private room or restroom, and an erotic magazine available for 99.99% of her patients so they could pleasure themselves to bring her the sample. Since they had been married and intimate, only Derek received her personal attention for that particular sample. He usually ended up in her lap on the examining table while she was clad in only an open lab coat and sandals or nothing at all for the exam. That was no erotic magazine was needed since Nova's body was all that was needed to turn Derek on, and Nova usually did not mind at all if Derek let his hands wander on her bare form during the exam.

Derek caught his breath and said, "Nova, there's a beautiful Iscandar out tonight…and…you're driving me crazy…."

"Thank you…you are…mmmm….driving me mad…too," Nova said as Derek went back after her breasts.

Both of them thus pleasured each other in an intimate, tender fashion for several minutes.

Derek lay in Nova's lap, kissing her as he alternated between breasts as he suckled her while he prayed he could keep himself from just exploding in his climax all over the place. .

Finally, Nova said, "I think the milk is out…..but please…don't stop touching me….let's…"

"Shall we…._do it _now?" he whispered.

"Yes, my darling, let's," Nova said as she kissed her husband, withdrew, and quickly leaned against a tree, going up on her toes as she parted her sex for him while she touched herself.

Derek took her from behind as he held and caressed Nova, his hands all over her breasts as, very tenderly, he slipped himself inside her as their lovemaking turned into impulsive, tender intercourse in the jungle…while they prayed that Steve and Diane did not come looking for them.

They did not.

There was a good reason.

Steve and Diane were now doing the same thing back at the camp!

Thus, the Wildstars were left alone in their lovemaking and joy, naked in the heat.

As he thrusted at Nova, Derek's hands went from her nipples, to her navel, to her Mound of Venus, and then around her waist as he went up on his bare toes and attacked her, while Nova went up on her toes, gasping, smiling, and shivering as she rode her husband while he made love to her, touched her, satisfied her, and was tender to her, even as she was tender to him.

It was good, loving, joyful sex that was filled with happiness for both partners, as the bit of tension that had generated between them at times during these nearly three bizarre days in the jungle faded away, and melted into happiness and rapture in the hot, jungly night.

Derek's breathing turned heavy as he gasped, "Nova, I…."

"Yeah?" she gasped. "Oh, yes, oh, yes….ohhhhhh…yes…I…"

"You're about to explode, yes?" Derek yelled.

"HELL YES!" Nova screamed as she shut her eyes and wriggled against him. "Ohhh…..YESSSSS!"

And, with her head back, Nova screamed and shivered as she grasped the tree with her fingers and the ground with her toes, glad to be hot, naked, barefoot, and in her dear husband's arms as the fire of climax consumed her, while Derek screamed her name as he went deep up inside her and came in her like white fire.

After their joyful climax, when they were finished, Derek sat there holding Nova, tenderly kissing her while he whispered how much he loved her. Nova kissed him, played with his hair, and did the same thing, smiling and shivering a little while Derek sucked her breasts again, just for fun, while he lay against her, smiling and pleasuring her again for a while, making her toes curl with delight as he lay against her and slowly and tenderly brought her to another happy, shivering climax with his hands.

Then, as they lay there, Nova kissed Derek's chest and sang to him, as he held her close in the warm embrace of a loving husband,

_Ohh….Let's Bungle in the Jungle…._

_Well that's alright, by me…._

_I'm a Tiger when I want love, I'm a snake, when we disagree…. _

Then, Nova and Derek got drowsy, and fell asleep on top of each other in the warm night.

* * *

A few footsteps came up from the misty river in the night at about 0230, Earthtime.

"So this is where the trail leads, Leader Desslok…"

Desslok shushed Talan as he carefully parted some jungle growth and walked in, following a lead sent to him by Wayza. "Talan, Zoltar cannot be more than a _gradznak_ away, now. That is a kilometer, for the Terrans. And we are four _gradznak_i away from our base; as far up the river as we could have gotten in those hover-boats before it went too shallow. It looks like he was making some camp near here, and…"

Desslok flipped back his cape, but he stopped when he beheld the peaceful scene of a nude Nova sleeping angelically on top of her unclad husband in the night. He took his hand off his blaster and signaled "stand down" to Talan with a hand signal

Talan looked over quizzically, until he saw Desslok kneeling over the sleeping, naked couple with a finger to his lips.

Desslok checked them, checking carefully for a pulse on Derek's neck, and then one on Nova's. He signaled Talan to come up slowly and he whispered, "They're not dead or drugged. Merely asleep." Looking as if he was consumed by some important question, Desslok took off his gauntlet and gently stroked Nova's bare buttock for a moment in her sleep, using only his fingertips. Talan's eyebrows went up, until Desslok came up and whispered, "I actually personally find the lad there to be just a little more attractive than she. But, she is appealing. And, when I touched her skin while checking her pulse, I thought I felt a hint of the Fire inside her, in that soft skin."

"The Fire?" said Talan.

Desslok nodded as he went off to ths side so as not to awaken Derek and Nova. "You know that our people came from Galmania, long ago. But, there is an ancient legend about the volcanic and spiritual Fire that we and the Iscandarians share. It is said that there is a bit of the Fire inside every Gamilon. And inside every Iscandarian…that we have a common origin somewhere in the past, bound together and melded together like magma, like Fire, by the origin of our worlds, and their common Doom. I was with Starsha, as you know. I felt the Fire inside her every time we made love. Her nude body burned with the Fire. Then, being with Astrena….I think I was drawn to her because I felt the Fire in her from afar. It is hard, so hard, to realize, but I realize, based on what I learned of their history and Astrena's and even Aliscea's teachings that there is a lot of the Iscandarian bloodline in the Pellians. They had much commerce in the past. And, now, Nova. I had the feeling that she had the Fire in her based upon the look in her eyes when we first met on my flagship, when she was risking her blood to try and defend him. I thought, then, "This Girl has the Fire in her Eyes, or I am utterly mistaken…" Since then, she and I have touched, now and again. Now is the first time my skin has really touched hers, skin to skin. The Fire _is_ in her. It confirms something Astrena has long suspected. Nova Wildstar, I do not know how, has some of the Blood of Iscandar inside her, and probably, some of the Blood of Pellias, too. Her eyes are so much like young Aliscea's that it is almost frightening. But, she has some of Starsha's insight and wisdom, too. And much of Astrena's. Iscandar. Pellias. They must have touched Earth, long ago, in the past. Barbarians, I called them?"

Desslok looked up at Talan, and Talan saw his eyes were misting over. "We are kin with them, Talan. Cousins. Possibly Brethren. We all share the Fire. How can we call our Brothers Barbarians in our arrogance?"

"So what shall we do?"

"Talan, have some of Wayza's men try to keep watch on this side. We are not to let them know we have been here. Go and wipe out our boot prints from the mud. Do not wake them. And we will do what we can to help them hunt down this…madman. Really. How far can that Zoltar get?"

* * *

**VIII. BUGS, A HAVEN, A BATTLE**

**Planet Gamilon**

**Gitranja Island, Near The Equator**

**August 31, 2208**

**0932 Hours: Standard Earth Space-Time**

* * *

"Where the hell are they?" muttered Diane Sandor as she scratched her arms and legs. They were on fire!

While naked, as the night had passed, the mosquitoes and other assorted bugs and nightcrawlers came out.

And, while she scratched, Diane them screamed. "STEVE! HELP!"

"What, Diane…I…." He ran over and saw Diane sobbing.

Two of those centipedes were at the center of her, exposed, of course, because she was nude. She said, "They're….they're eating my hair there, and…"

Steve looked down at himself and screamed. "ARRRGGGHH!" he yelled. One of them was at him there, too! "How…how do you get them off?"

"Careful…very careful pressure," said Nova softly as she came up holding hands with Derek. Both of them, of course, wore their limited gear and helmets but nothing else.

Something Sandor didn't notice, but which Diane did notice (as she tried to pull the centipedes off her tender anatomy there) was that Derek had been sporting the typical male hair above his genital region. Now, he had none there. "Nova...I…HELP! What gets rid of these things?"

"Two things," Nova said calmly and softly as she dropped her belt and fanny pack to the ground. "Pressing the things' heads….and then, doing a bikini area job, shall we say?"

"You...want to…?"

Nova said, "Shhhh….Diane…it's okay. This is like a medical exam. I did it to Derek before…of course….he got attention, this morning, after we woke up, that I will not give either of you…"

Derek grinned like hell at that, until Nova said, "It's between us, my dear Skipper. They need not know of the special treatment I gave you….although they can probably guess…"

"Lucky kid!" laughed Steve, while Derek blushed and yelled. "Oh, Steve, shut up!"

Nova, in the meantime, worked on Diane serenely, throwing aside the centipede-things, and then calmly getting a small tube of depilatory cream out of her fanny pack. "Lay down, Diane. Do not struggle for this. I take it you have gotten a bikini job before?"

"It's….uh…been a while, Nova…"

"Not long for me, you see…." Nova said, involuntarily blushing a little as she showed Diane her center. "It's nice and clean. They got in my hair on my head but attacked Derek there and not me. They like…uhh….all the hair they find there, and…"

"I get the idea," said Diane.

"Stephen, you'll be last," sang Nova.

"Yeah, if I can keep these damn bugs from biting me up!" he yelled.

* * *

A day passed.

An increasingly miserable day,.

The underbrush was bad here.

The four of them now had bug welts all over them, and Nova almost wanted to cry, her naked skin was burning so badly from all of them.

Derek was not far behind her.

Diane had cried. About three times. Steve had tried to comfort her, to no avail. Nova had then tried, and had even given permission for Derek to literally hold Diane skin-to-skin and rock her like a baby.

None of the three of them had been able to calm Diane.

Finally, another rainstorm hit.

Soon, as well as being on fire, they were growing wet, miserable, muddy almost from head to toe, and even cold. They had to stop twice for Nova, who had to be held in Derek's arms as she shivered naked in the rain.

It was at one of these moments that Zoltar made his presence known again.

By playing sniper.

Derek had been holding and rocking Nova, and Diane had been holding Steve….

…when, suddenly, he fired at them,

The Wildstars had a laser shot going off right over the heads. Nova later swore it was close enough to part her wet hair (she had been out of her helmet then).

Derek shoved Nova down to safety and returned fire at an insane, laughing Zoltar at once.

A lightning bolt went off, revealing a form that looked almost demonic. He was, like them, essentially naked, except for one boot, a bit of his cape, his mask, and one of his gauntlets.

Blood flowed from numerous wounds on his body that did not seem to hurt him, and he had more bug bites on his near-naked body than all four of them put together. He also stank. Unlike the four of them, he had made no attempt to even clean himself from the river after satisfying the basic urges of nature; i.e., the need to urinate, the need to defecate, and (for him especially) the need for sexual release. The four of them had a river, some basic human propriety and dignity, and willing and loving partners for their sexuality. Zoltar had none of these, feeling strangely above humanity in his bizarre animalistic degradation, and having no partner in this hour of darkness but himself (or, as he/she sometimes changed gender, _her_self) and the Great Spirit that haunted his weird, twisted mind.

Zoltar screamed at them, and said, "My father's blood! O, what a concept as I have no father! My mother's breast! What Breast? I only sucked from the Glass Teat! You mere humans make me want to openly VOMIT upon you, and only I am fit to rule your lot!"

"What the fuck is this?" snapped back an enraged, wet Derek Wildstar. "Are we to submit to rule by some maniac who kidnaps and uses women?"

"I am both man _and_ woman!" raged Zoltar as he fired again. Nova shot back at him and just barely missed. "Man is meant to rule over and subjugate woman as I use the form of being a woman to pollute and confuse your puny minds! I am both, and NEITHER!"

"Well, what I see out there looks like a man, and a pretty nasty-looking one at that!" Nova yelled back. "Zoltar…your manhood…if we can call it that…..is…a bad parody of manhood!"

Zoltar laughed and drooled insanely. "Die, die, die, die, die, DIE!" he yelled as he fired wildly at them. "Come and catch me, humans! IF YOU CAN!"

Steve snarled behind his helmet and fired at the running form of Zoltar, who whooped insanely and threw himself into the river.

Nova, heedless of the wind, rain, and her cold, dropped her gear and said, "Derek, I'm swimming in after him! I'll smash his head in with a spare rock if I have to!"

Derek held her back and said, "Nova, look at the river! It's swollen, the current is insane, and I see rocks there. You're a great swimmer, a former college team swimmer, but even you would never survive that! I think he just decided to commit suicide, and, as brave as you are, you'd be doing the same thing, my… dear Braveheart!" he cried. "Please! Not this time, Nova!" he said as he hugged her.

"Derek, the mission! I want to…" Then, she just gave up and cried, punching Derek in her frustration. "He nearly forced me to make love to him! Don't you think I WANT MY VENGEANCE TOO?"

"I know you do….I know you do…just not this way," sobbed Derek.

"Hey, kid…" said Diane. "I know how you feel." She kissed the back of Nova's head and said, "You have a good man here. Yes, Derek, you are a good man, even though I could not see it at the time, buddy. Nova, for once, take this chowderhead Derek's advice, and let's carry on this fight against him another way! You have this chowderhead to look after and three kids to look after. How do you think little Ariel would feel if someone had to tell her, '_your mommy's dead-she drowned in a wild river chasing Zoltar_?' Is that something you could live with?"

"No," Nova said. "Okay, Derek…I'm sorry. Diane, I'm…sorry….let my rage get away with me, I guess…"

"Shh..," said Derek. "You're safe, Nova. He got away, again….but if he's even alive, we'll still get him. You're…safe…"

Then, about a minute or two later, a spotlight shone out through the rain and mist at them.

Two Gamilon tanks appeared from the rain on a wide mud flat where the river valley widened at last. Derek recognized the forms and yelled to his comrades. "Nova! Steve! Diane! _Stand down!_ It's Gamilon space tanks! Not Spectrans!"

The tanks stopped, and Colonel Damuk's voice came out of one of the tanks over a speaker. "Hello! Star Force? You have made it. You are almost at our base. The one on the north cape. You are just three _gradznaki_ away from it! You people look _horrible_. Need a lift back?"

"We're still chasing Zoltar!" said Derek.

"Ahhh...one of our patrols spotted him. He got thrown around in the river for a bit and ended up getting tossed out at Virnak Peninsula. We have closed the neck of it off. He will not get through there again. After you get refreshed, clothed again, and cleaned up, you can help us hunt him down in the Peninsula Jungle. If you want to. The only three ways off there are over the cliffs into the sea, out the river valley, which we are closing off, and out of there by air. He has no plane, and I don't know if even _he_ is suicidal enough to throw himself off a cliff into a rocky ocean, Wildstar. Get your people, and come with us. Bring Commander Wildstar in our tank with you. The Sandors can go in the other tank…"

"Okay," said Derek. "Nova, come with me. Steve, take Diane in the other tank."

"Yessir," said Sandor.

* * *

In the Gamilon space tank, Nova felt a bit better as she sat on a small seat, sharing body heat skin-to-skin with Derek as she sat on his lap as they cuddled wrapped in a thick green blanket. A surprisingly kind Garuman enlisted man in his blue battle armor gave them a cup of some hot beverage like coffee as the tank lurched towards the base.

Nova smiled a little, saying, "The heat in this thing is actually welcome, Derek. It's even blowing some heat towards my poor cold toes!"

Derek kissed Nova and said, "Nice to hear, Braveheart. How soon before you Gamilons find out exactly where Zoltar went?"

"The two parties were not that far from him, but he is a _wily_ maniac," said Colonel Damuk. "We don't know how he moves so fast in the jungle."

"He's a mutant," Derek replied. "His powers are freakish."

"He heals quickly and he can change his shape," Nova added.

"What an accursed monster," said Damuk. "Get ready to move; we're almost there. When we get in the base, we'll feed you and eventually get some uniforms on you. You're going to need some decent Garuman battle armor to survive in this climate. We will have to grow you some…"

"Grow us some?" Derek said.

"Derek, a lot of their technology is organically-based," Nova said. "The Gamilons use some kind of advanced, biogenetically-engineered organisms to make a special resin that can be shaped like plastic."

"I see you have done some research," said Damuk.

Nova didn't want to add that Sandor had been trying to reverse-engineer the process as he had with the Reflex Shield, but she said, "We do a lot in the pursuit of science. I've helped Commander Sandor, who is in the other tank, with some of that said research."

"You may want to watch us make your armor if that craft interests you," said Damuk. "You may find it interesting. Until your armor is ready, you will have to go naked. We have no clothing here that would fit you, and really nothing to be spared," said Damuk.

* * *

The Gamilon Patrol Tank and Fighter Base that they arrived at a few minutes later consisted of three hemispherical buildings, joined together with access tunnels.

Colonel Damuk led them to a large Sickbay in the central area (the usual odd Gamilon air treatment system moans and sighs came from the vents and permeated the room), where an armor-clad Gamilon doctor named Kendla was preparing a metal examining table that had some drain holes in it, complete with some towels nearby. He said to Damuk, "Colonel, sir, I have four treatments ready."

"Treatments?" asked Derek as he scratched at himself.

"Yes. Gamilon-style treatments to treat those insect bites and cleanse your skin. Kindly stop scratching, Earthling?" said the bearded blue Gamilon doctor as he adjusted his _pince-nez_ style glasses. "First, we shall treat you, and then the very slender blond woman holding your hand. Are you two a couple?"

"Yes, we are," Nova said miserably while putting up her foot to scratch her toes. "Do we get baths?"

"The bath is part of the treatment," said Damuk as he sprayed down the table with some hot water from a spray nozzle in his hand on a hose. He nodded to two enlisted men, who carefully pushed Derek onto the table, stomach-first.

Derek gasped as he was sprayed with some very hot water, and then, a moment later, after Kendla pushed another button, something hit his skin that felt like liquid fire.

He screamed in agony as Nova yelled, "Derek! Doctor, what in Heaven's name are you doing to my _husband_? This is horrible!"

Damuk grabbed Nova by the shoulders and said, "Easy, dear. The treatment is a multi-spectrum nano-gene treatment that will regenerate his skin and heal his insect bites in a few minutes. The side effect is that it is a shock to the system and very, very painful to exposed skin, even for Gamilons." Nova's lip trembled, and even Diane looked ill (along with Steve) as the enlisted men turned a moaning Derek over onto his back. Then, they treated the forward half of his body from head to toe, and Nova began to cry as she said, "Please stop it! My God, you're…you're making poor Derek wet himself like a baby!" Nova cried as she saw her husband screaming, moaning, and urinating on himself during the procedure. When they were done, Nova ran over to Derek, held him, heedless of the pain beginning to hit her own body as she embraced him and got covered with the remnants of the medication, and she said, "Oh, my poor darling….I didn't know they'd hurt you like that!" Nova began to cry as she held him, giving the Gamilons a black, angry look.

"Nova, it's okay," Derek moaned. "I'm starting to feel better…the bites are gone…."

"He'll be all right?" Nova sobbed.

"It seems harsh to you, Madam, but it is necessary medicine. Otherwise, you would be in agony in your new armor. Part of the armor includes a body stocking that goes right against your flesh," said Doctor Kendla. "Since you are half on the table, madam, let us do you next…"

Nova bit her lip and nodded, and said, "Derek, please hold my hand…"

"I will," he said as he kissed Nova as she winced while lying on her naked stomach in the mixture of water and medicine that covered the table. Derek's soil had been carefully washed down the drain.

Nova shut her eyes, moaning slightly as the hot water hit her welt-covered back and bottom, and then, she screamed like a banshee when the medicine hit her naked body, making her fingers and toes clench in agony as Nova felt as if she was being roasted alive in Hell. Diane hid her face in Steve's chest and cried. "That poor thing….she's taking this hard!"

"Wildstar's out of it," said Sandor as he watched Derek rubbing Nova's back, wincing a little at the solution on his hands. "She'll get better, too…."

To her shame, Nova had wet herself soon after the stuff had hit her body. She was shaking all over and moaning as she was turned over by Derek and the enlisted men, and she gasped and howled as the solution hit the front half of her body, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. When she was done, Nova's body was clean, shivering, and she moaned and gasped in Derek's arms as she lay there wet but free from welts.

Diane was comforted by all three of them as she took her treatment, wetting herself like the others with no shame as she rolled about like an animal in her pain. Finally, Steve took the last treatment, blushing as Derek and Nova removed his bionic limbs first as Diane shivered and moaned while she was dried off and her pain faded. Steve took the treatment without wetting himself, but he roared in his pain. Then, Diane helped Nova and Derek comfort him as she helped them put his limbs back on.

Freed of their bug bites, and dried off, the party then went to dinner.

* * *

A little while later, they sat in the base refectory, eating their first hot dinner in three days.

As they sat there, it seemed that Diane had found some kind of tie-dyed headband to decorate herself with, and Nova had gone through a small box and had somehow found an LA Dodgers baseball cap in the Gamilon Base! Thus, the baseball cap, worn rakishly, was all she had to wear at the moment. Derek thought she looked cute naked except for her baseball cap.

"What's this stuff?" said Derek as he poked with an alien-looking fork at an appetizer.

"That's _Kirnak_," said one Gamilon trooper.

Nova took a piece and said, "Tastes like a cross between chicken and squid."

"Oh, it _is_ from the tentacle of a sea creature," said Damuk as he sat eating in his brown battle armor with his helmet off, and his crew cut showing. "He's about…uh…three of your meters around. He was a big _Kirnak._"

"How many tentacles do they have?" asked Stephen. He was eating the stuff, while Diane was making a face at it. "Squid, _ewwwwww_," she muttered under her breath.

"About sixteen," said Damuk.

"Nice," muttered Diane.

Other courses came as Nova looked through the box again, curious at the objects she was finding as she and the others ate. In the box was a container of what looked like Gamilon-style adhesive bandages, two combat knives, and what looked like a Gamilon pornographic magazine. Nova opened it, looked at the centerfold, blushed, and gave Derek a good-natured slap when he grabbed the magazine and looked interested!

"Stop _looking_ at that, Derek! You have _me_ to look at with nothing on!" Nova snapped as she raised her bare leg and pointed her toes while showing him her breast.

"Sorry, just curious about what their women look like, Nova….are they blue all over?" he said as he prepared to throw the Gamilon porn mag back in the box while the Gamilons cracked up. He threw the magazine back into the box, and pulled out a long blue object that made Nova gasp. "What is this thing?" he said. "Organic-looking microphone?"

Nova blushed deeply as Steve took it and played around with the object, which had two long looping straps at the end. He found a switch and made it hum and vibrate as he said, "Hmmm…must be a comm device…it _does_ look like a microphone, Wildstar…"

"Maybe it's a sonic screwdriver and they really exist," said Diane as she looked at it, thinking that it looked more like…something else. "Funny Gamilon sonic screwdriver…it looks just like a….big, blue…"

Nova grabbed it from Diane. "That's exactly what it is, Chowderhead!"

"What?" said Derek.

Nova rolled up her eyes. "Derek, dear…this is…well…it's a martial aid. Sort of…." The thing was still in Nova's hand, and it was still vibrating. Then, she said, "Don't _any_ of the three of you recognize this thing or look at those spam catalogues of sex toys we all get sent in the mail from Arkansas? Geez, I'll have to put it on to show you what it does!"

Nova then twisted around in her seat, put her bare feet up (in the same position Derek had found her in the other day when she had been pleasuring herself) and put her feet and legs through the straps and strapped the bizarre strap-on sex toy onto herself. Then, Nova stood up and wiggled her hips a little. Diane was the first one to get it, and she almost fell out of her seat laughing. Sandor looked at Nova modeling the object in the nude with a cute little grin and said, "Derek, I don't believe this. This base is making our poor sweetheart into a pervert!"

Derek looked on wide-eyed as Nova modeled the object and he finally said, "Uh…Nova…do you think we'd ever use that?"

Nova blushed and stood up on her toes and said, "Only if you really want to walk on the wild side some night, Derek…"

Diane cracked up and said, "Nova! Keep it! Keep it! _Keep it_!"

"No, _de nada_. It belongs to someone here at the base….and I _do_ hope it was clean," Nova said as she sat on the chair and took off the...object. "Derek," she said innocently as she turned off the vibrator on the device.

"Yes?"

"The next time one of those catalogues comes in from Arkansas?"

"Yes, dear?" Derek said.

"We're keeping it," she said as she kissed him. "I think we could find some stuff in it."

"NOVA!" said Derek as she hugged him and laughed and cracked up.

Then, they went back to their dinner. It was getting cold.

* * *

The next day dawned on Gitranja Island. It was now September 1, 2208.

Zoltar had come close to losing his mind in the jungle.

Zoltar was walking around, with none of his goons left alive, muttering the lyrics to the Beatles' "_Help_" under his breath…..

_When I was younger, so much younger than today… I never needed anyone's….._

Zoltar began to laugh. He was getting sick to his stomach from having eaten some random weed in this noxious jungle.

He was now very close to nude.

He wore one thigh-high boot, a ragged bit of his cape, one glove, and his mask, and nothing else.

The centipedes had been at him, and a few leeches had attached themselves to him. In fact, one was still stuck to one of his testicles.

"Help me, O Luminous One," he whispered as he laughed. "Why have you abandoned me?"

_Help Me if You can, I'm feelin' Down…_

He knelt down, and shaking, fell asleep and dreamed a strange dream.

* * *

In Zoltar's dream, thousands upon thousands of Spectran troops, civilians, and nobles were saluting him as he became High Priest and Prince of Spectra and First Chairman, commander of all of the growing Empire's military forces. Zoltar was basking in the glory as he laughed like a madman.

Then, in his dream, the Great Spirit of Spectra, _aka_ Generalissimo X, came to Zoltar and said, "These are shadows of visions which _may be_, Zoltar!"

"Visions of things which _may_ be?" Zoltar asked.

"Yes they are," said the Luminous One in his strange, deep, echoing voice. "You need to obey me to the letter. I have prepared a rescue for you, Zoltar. You will evade your enemies, but it will be close…a ship will be overhead…."

"Close, how close?" Zoltar asked.

"How you handle this shall be a TEST of your continued worthiness to serve Me," said the Great Spirit as he faded away.

Then, something made the ground shake.

He abruptly woke up.

Planes were flying overhead.

Gamilon planes!

He got up and began to run into the jungle as some strafing began.

Laughing insane, he began to run.

Bolts of energy smashed all around him.

Zoltar ran. Then, he paused.

He looked up, and hit the dirt, just barely avoiding being strafed as Katrina Savela's fighter blasted over his head by about five hundred feet.

A moment later, two Gamilon Dive Bombers that looked like 1930's German Stuka bombers blasted in from nowhere as they dived in. The "Stukas" roared in at high speed and they both strafed the area like mad.

Zoltar hit the dirt, shaking like a leaf. He was used to war and combat, but not like _this_.

"Five planes in a minute," he said. "Great Spirit, what sort of test is this? This is not fair! It is NOT FAIR!"

To his surprise, the Stukas landed, and he wondered where he was going to run to.

"They've seen me, they've surely seen me…..Need I run anymore? How far will I get?"

Zoltar ran into a hollow, and then, to his shock, he heard footsteps behind him in the distance.

"Did we finally get him?" snapped an angry, deep whiskey-voiced woman through what sounded like a speaker system, leaping down from one of the Stukas, piloted by a very slight figure in the pilot's seat. Zoltar just barely overheard the voice, and he hissed to himself. "Gamilons? Sounds like one of their systems…but they talk like Earthlings! HOW?" he yelled.

He looked over, and saw a second dive bomber; it was flown by a man who seemed to be roughly six feet tall, and in the aft place, there emerged a very tall man who was over six feet tall.

"Negative, Diane," said a somewhat higher-pitched female alto voice that made Zoltar grit his teeth. _That rotten bitch,_ Zoltar thought as he looked up and saw, in the distance, Nova Wildstar, now clad in dark blue Garuman battle armor, climbing down fast from the cockpit of one of the Stukas. She was one of the pilots who had strafed him; Derek had been the other one. Luckily, they were among the elite group of only six Earthlings who had taken lessons on these Gamilon planes as part of an exchange effort through the Gamilon Embassy on Earth; and as part of that effort, they had recently become checked-out to fly them. "Derek, I see his footprints. One boot, one bare foot. Fresh. Also blood," Nova said.

"We'll go that way," snapped Commodore Wildstar in the distance as Zoltar gripped a rock.

_Now it begins,_ he thought. _The final chase._ _They'll get me, if…if….._

He felt around his gloved hand. _It's gone! Curse the gods! It is GONE! No hope for me, but to….run….._

Zoltar began to run.

As he ran, getting somewhat winded from lack of food and rest, he heard a high-pitched man's whistle, which sounded strange since it was filtered through a Gamilon helmet. "Speed up, GUYS!" Derek Wildstar yelled at the top of his lungs. "This is the way the miserable son-of-a-bitch went! Let's run like we never ran before!"

"Right, Wildstar!" snapped Stephen Sandor. "Let's GET him this time!"

Zoltar screamed and laughed like mad, singing, "You can't catch ME! Here come old flat-top, he come groovin' up with me! Hahahahahahahahahahaha!"

He threw a rock at them, and was delighted when it hit Stephen Sandor's helmeted head.

"FUCK YOU!" he roared, laughing at them as they scrambled down into the hollow at high speed.

Zoltar's plan was simple, climb a tree, and begin throwing coconuts at them.

"You idiots, I will….!"

His plans came to an abrupt end when an armored Sandor tackled him out of nowhere.

Punches landed on his kidneys as he looked back and saw that the red-headed woman had grabbed his booted leg.

Then, incredible pain came as she punched him in the testicles, and then kicked him. "You monster!" Diane yelled. "This is for raping me! SURRENDER!"

His face smashed into the dirt as a weight landed on his upper back and punches began flurrying onto his exposed face. "You miserable shit, _trying_ to rape me!" yelled Nova Wildstar, who was on top of his back.

Zoltar tried to struggle as he looked over and saw Derek Wildstar kicking him in the side, also clad in that cursed Gamilon armor and yelling, "Zoltar, SURRENDER!" as he pointed an Astro-Automatic in his face.

More pain came for the struggling, maddened Zoltar as Diane Sandor, whom he recognized clearly now as the red-headed bitch he had raped kicked again him in the genitals, hard, and yelled, "That's how you made _me_ feel! How do you like it?"

"AAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHH!" Zoltar yelled as the kicks and punches came harder and faster…..

…and he felt his bladder letting go.

A mixture of his urine and blood sprayed from him on the ground as he wet himself like a baby.

Nova somehow forced his hands under him and made him lay on his hands as she slapped him and said, "Pissing yourself? Good! It's karma! You made us do the same thing in the open when we chased you!"

"Nova, rip his mark off!" snapped Derek.

Nova then began to rip away Zoltar's anonymity as she and Derek saw that he had rather long blond hair and strange, androgynous features.

"He wears _lipstick_?" yelled Derek. "Nova, _look!_"

"Lipstick!" snapped Nova as she punched him in the mouth. "What kind of man wears lipstick and rapes and murders innocent people?"

"Someone we're about to do a Bin Laden 2011 hit on!" said Derek. "Nova, move your legs! I'm gonna blow his brains out!"

"Wildstar, we were going to capture him alive?" asked Stephen Sandor.

"I don't trust him as far as I could throw him, and we can do an autopsy later! Nova! Move your leg!"

"Right," Nova said as she continued to rip away his mask while Derek cocked his weapon with a loud snick.

Nova was about to rip off his mask and jump back to allow Derek a clear shot when Zoltar grabbed his own wrist.

_It's there! _he thought in reckless hope. _My bracelet!_ _If there is a ship overhead, like the Great Spirit told me in my dream, then….._

Zoltar pushed his button right as Derek was about to put his Astro-Automatic against his forehead and pull the trigger after making sure Nova had one of her long legs out of the way.

It did not work.

"WHAT?" Zoltar roared. "It's _broken!_ It's…..!"

"You're gonna be broken in four seconds, Zoltar!" snapped Commodore Derek Wildstar. "Pray to whatever God you believe in. Four….three….two…."

Zoltar gritted his teeth and prepared to die as….a moment later…

The bracelet cycled and worked…apparently on its own, as a signal from the Luminous One hit the damaged piece of Spectran mecha.

Zoltar began to gleam with a bizarre, multi-colored light as he went all colors and faded away right before the shocked Star Force party's eyes.

Nova fell a few inches to the ground and was left with Zoltar's mask in her hand.

Diane was left holding his weird high red boot.

Stephen Sandor was left punching nothing.

"Where did he go?" yelled Diane.

Nova stared in rage and shock at his mask. "Derek…we should have stripped him completely first!"

"Damnit!" snapped Commodore Wildstar. "Nova, we were too damn eager!"

"Yeah, we lost him," hissed Diane.

"Not quite," said a dulcet voice in their headsets.

"Desslok?" said Derek.

""I'm tracking the ship that just warped in. There was a nice energy discharge. He's on that ship. Get to your fighters….you can still…."

"GO!" roared Derek as he gestured at his party.

Nova gave him a quick hug and then saluted. "Diane!" she snapped. "GO!"

"I'll be your tail gunner again, Wildstar…." said Steve as they ran.

"Yeah, good thing those Gamilon ships have lots of fuel, and good thing they had four at that base in the hangar," said Derek as they ran on. "Wish we could figure out how they get that range from those dive bombers…Nova, follow my lead when you take off…just like before."

"Right!" she said as she reached her "Stuka" first on a run and leaped up onto the access rungs. "Diane! Move your ass!"

"What do you think I'm doing?" she yelled as Derek strapped into his dive bomber and Sandor jumped in and boarded even as he began to move. Nova was already in the cockpit, slamming switches in frustration and doing a quick, angry pre-flight as she brought up the engines on the Gamilon ship.

Within thirty seconds, both planes were taking off, leaving Gitranja Island behind them again as a blur as they rocketed over the beach and Gamilon's southern equatorial sea, making tracks for space.

* * *

**IX. OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC CONFLICT**

**Planet Earth**

**The San Diego Megalopolis**

**The Rio Amarillo Apartment Complex**

**Wednesday, August 31, 2208**

**1742 Hours: San Diego Local Time**

* * *

In the meantime, as a battle continued on and around Planet Gamilon, back on Earth, at the same time, due to the vagarities of the International Date Line, another chain of events was happening.

It seemed deceptively peaceful…at first…"

"How's that, little David?" said Dawn Hardy as she sat in the bath playing with her baby son, David Hardy.

He squealed loudly as he splashed his mother in the tub, Then, he whimpered a little, and grabbed for Dawn's breast.

"Hungry? Sure, precious," said Dawn as she gave her nude breast to her baby and smiled as he nursed. "You know, I hope your Daddy comes home soon. And I hope Mr. Abramson will give us some more time to move. They are not supposed to throw us out until tomorrow at the earliest. I have so much packed already, but…well, Nova's father is supposedly going to be by any day with the keys to Derek and Nova's place here in the complex so we can start moving in. Too bad the Wildstars couldn't keep their townhouse….they thought the _Argo_ was going to be home ported here and that Nova would be going to Medical School at the same hospital I work at; but, instead, they moved the ship, and Nova will be going to school in Tokyo. At least they are going to sell us their place and let us move in early, and…."

Then, Dawn heard the door opening. "Mom?" she yelled. "I'm in the tub with David! MOM?" she called.

Instead, she just heard people walking into the living room…and heard things being moved out in a hurry.

"What?" she said as she got up and began to drain the water. Then, the door opened, and a cross-looking, tubby little man with short hair ran right into the bathroom, leaned on the tub, and yelled, "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY CLIENT'S TOWNHOUSE!" Samuelson had just been in a foul mood all day, and had saved Dawn for last, not even bothering to read his e-mail back at his office, including one that had come all the way from the vicinity of Gamilon earlier this morning before the battle. But, if he had done so, this day would have turned out quite differently.

"Mister Samuelson?" cried Dawn. She could not believe this. He had barged right into her bathroom, while she was feeding David, and was wet and naked!

Hiram Samuelson said, "Damnit, are you fracking _deaf_, Hardy? It's time for you to leave! Your fourteen days are UP! You are being moved out NOW!"

"But…but," stammered Dawn as little David saw him and began to whimper. "The notice you sent us said that our last day here was August 31st!"

"Yeah? Did you read the Goddamn notice, Hardy?" snapped Samuelson. "It said you were subject to eviction if you were not out of here by the close of business on August 31st, 2208, standard San Diego Megalopolis time! Close of business was forty-five minutes ago at 5PM, you dumb broad! I have a crew on overtime to move you and your shit out! Out of that tub! NOW!"

"Now?" said Dawn as her eyes filled with tears. David whimpered as Samuelson actually tore the clock down from the newly-painted green wall and tore down the blue curtains. He threw the items to a man who came in and whistled at Dawn. "Hey, bitch!" the man yelled.

"Yeah! I mean NOW!" said Samuelson as he yelled at her. "Get out NOW!"

"You're insane!" screamed Dawn. "All right, let me get some clothes on me and my…my…baby.." she sobbed.

"You don't get any!" yelled Samuelson.

"WHAT?" cried Dawn.

"I have a judgment for damages and legal expenses and a Writ of Ejectment against you and your husband that became effective at 5PM. I can execute on that judgment with my armed men, so that every single thing that you fucking own now belongs to Foxworth-Savela Management, Ltd until the judgment is paid along with all moving and storage costs! That includes your clothes!"

"This is crazy!" cried Dawn. "You…you…can't send me out of here…naked!"

"I can and I will!" yelled Samuelson as he flipped back his coat and drew a revolver with six bullets in it. "You have thirty seconds to get off my property before I shoot! That beach here on this complex is a clothes-optional beach and is public property! You can camp out there naked with your little brat like a bum as an Untouchable with no official existence under the Government! Because that is now what you are! AN UNPERSON with no ID Number since I have confiscated your ID card! GET OUT!"

Dawn screamed, and then, crying, she ran out of the house with David in her arms, barely able to look as she saw Samuelson's men throwing her life and Jeff's life into trucks and even stuffing some of her own clothes and shoes and David's things into garbage bags that were thrown into the truck with the "F" and the Fox-Head Emblem on it.

Dawn ran down the path to the beach, crying, ignoring those who gave her foul looks.

Finally, she sat down by the water's edge in the wet sand with little David, and she held him and rocked and keened as she realized he had wet both of them.

"What do I do?" sobbed Dawn. "Thanks to that GODDAMN Katrina, I now have no ID card, no money, nothing, and no way to even buy you baby wipes or a diaper! What am I going to do?"

Weeping, Dawn sat naked in the ocean and tried, pathetically, to give David and herself a bath.

Then, she sat wet on the beach, and, rocking, she tried to give David some milk from her breasts…just to calm the poor baby.

It seemed hopeless to Dawn, who was now contemplating just swimming out to sea with David in one arm and then letting a wave wash them under…so their miserable lives would just end as they drowned.

* * *

Unaware of Samuelson's action, and expecting that he would obey her e-mail that told him to hold off on the Hardy eviction for seven days until she got back to Earth to handle it herself and to try to arrange terms for the Hardys to move out quickly and to begin paying their debts to her, Katrina was flying about like a madwoman as she again attacked the new Spectran Command Ship that Zoltar had transmitted a short, weird, ranting message from ten minutes ago in a rage.

Then, before Katrina's shocked eyes, a spacefleet appeared. Ten of them, about a few kilometers away from Desslok's Command Cruiser _Gamilstadt _and his Gamilon escorts, including some of the destroyers that had been chasing Zoltar for the past few days_,_, and the _Argo,_ which had taken off from Gamilon.

One of the Spectran ships; a 180-meter long class of ships marked with the red Spectran Demon-Head Emblem that would later become known as Spectran Frigates, began firing upon the _Argo_ just as Derek's and Nova's borrowed Gamilon planes landed in the ship's lower landing bay.

Hardy ran up to Wildstar and asked, "Ah was warned you'd be comin' aboard in Gamilon ships, but youh dressed like one'o them now, too?"

"No time to argue," snapped Derek as he pulled his helmet off. "Get the Tigers out there as soon as you can get these Gamilon ships stowed into the spare fighter plane bays! Get the deck cleared and get the black command ship out there with the red Demon-Head Emblem on it that looks like a big bat. That's the best I can describe it. That bastard somehow teleported onto that ship."

"Derek, I'm getting changed into my regular uniform and I'll meet you on the bridge," Nova said as she came up to Derek and saluted, still holding, in frustration, Zoltar's mask.

"I'll be up there to meet you in a minute," Derek said.

A crewman ran up and said, "Commodore! Desslok is requesting to speak with you and Commander Sandor as soon as possible on a secure channel in the comm room," as he saluted.

Derek looked at Nova and said, "Make that five minutes. I'll try to see what Desslok wants. Take command on the bridge when you get there and remain in command until I relieve you!"

Nova saluted and ran off, stating, "Diane, meet me on the bridge."

"Aye, ma'am…."

* * *

Nova ran onto Bridge Number One exactly four minutes later, after she tore off her Gamilon armor suit in her cabin and exchanged it for her own uniform as rapidly as she could dress.

Running onto the Bridge, she said, "Who's in charge right now!"

"I am, Number Two," said Eager formally.

"Eager, you stand relieved; I'm in command until the Captain gets here," Nova snapped. She ran over to the Cosmo-Radar, which was being manned by Sasha, and said, "How many of them are there?"

"Thirty ships now, ma'am," said Sasha formally. "All Spectran; all shooting at us. We took one hit; Desslok's cruiser took two hits; and they brought down two Gamilon destroyers."

"Message coming in!" snapped Homer. "Audio-only!"

"Put it on speakers!" snapped Nova as she leaned against the Captain's desk.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" came the wild laughter from the speakers.

"Zoltar, is that _you_?" Nova snapped.

"Who do you think it is, you fluff-brained IDIOT?" he yelled back, adding, "Oh, you fluffy little piece of dryer lint! Go home and make yourself and your husband some of your rotten coffee!" On his Command Ship, he was wrapped in one of his spare cloaks, and he looked out of his mind. His blond hair was frizzed, his face was bruised from his beating, his eyes were bloodshot, and blood and spit were dripping from his mouth. He looked horrid as he screamed into his microphone, "You think you're still trying to fight me? Where is that dip-brained significant other of yours?"

"None of your business!" Nova snapped back. "Are you going to surrender, or do we need to blow you out of space? Ensign Kojima! Ready our main guns and fire at will at that ugly command cruiser! It looks like a big grotesque bat!"

"Aye, ma'am," said Kojima from Combat.

Zoltar laughed wildly and his ship roared around the _Argo_ (just as the young Ensign on duty at Combat fired the ship's main guns at it—and just barely missed), and he fired at the _Argo_ as six of his Frigates caught the Earth space battleship in a crossfire pattern from all sides as they shot at her.

The _Argo_ shook hard from multiple hits. One of them caused a short on the bridge and caused things to go flying.

Nova herself was one of those things, screaming as the deck went out from under her. The _Argo_ tilted hard to starboard under Harper's command and Nova stumbled and fell, hitting the deck on her butt in a scream with her legs flying up in the air.

Commodore Wildstar ran onto the bridge a moment later, closing his peacoat around his bare chest as he put on his cap. He knelt down by Nova and said, "Are you okay?"

She nodded as Derek helped her stand up. "Luckily, no one can get a concussion through one's butt!"

"What's the situation?" Commodore Wildstar snapped. "Number Two, I need a situation report!"

"Yessir," Nova said. "Sasha, let me in there…it's like this…" Nova looked at the radar over Sasha's shoulder, even as Zoltar came about for another pass. For a moment, it looked as if he was going to ram the _Argo's_ First Bridge as he sped in, but, then, he swung about as three more of his escorts fired upon the _Argo_. Then, he flew over the Captain's Quarters as Derek said, "Look! Desslok's flagship is on his butt right now…he…."

"Damn him, he just warped out!" said Sasha from her post.

"What?" snapped Derek.

Nova made a pair of fists as she looked at the screen. Then she said, "Derek, Sasha is right…he _did _warp."

"But to where?" said Derek.

"I wish we knew," said Sasha as she took some scans. "Oh! That Spectran fleet is warping away, too!"

"Yeah, give me more bad news," mumbled Derek. He pulled off his hat, sat down behind the Captain's Chair, and slammed the console with his fist. Nova came over and gave him a sympathy hug.

"All that pain and angst and we _didn't _get him!" Derek said.

"What did Desslok want before?" Nova said.

"He wanted to discuss coordinating our efforts to get Zoltar and defeat that fleet. It's sort of a moot point….now."

Nova nodded. Diane came up on the bridge and asked, "Did we get him?" Derek shook his head. Diane sat down at her post muttering to herself.

* * *

Dawn Hardy was not sure how long she sat on that beach with David, crying alone, until she felt someone tapping her on the shoulder. She jumped. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" she yelled.

She turned around, and saw her mother Lynn standing there, along with Karl Forrester. "I'm sorry we took so long…we couldn't find you," said Lynn Westland. "What's going on at your townhouse?"

"I was thrown out," sobbed Dawn. "They….they took everything from me and David and Jefferson…that's…why I'm naked….I….I've been having trouble even getting my milk to come for him," she sobbed as he tried to suckle her.

"I'm sorry I took so long," said Karl. "But, I have something for you…"

"What?" demanded Dawn, who screamed and slapped Karl Forrester across the face as she grabbed an envelope out of his hand. She tore it open, and the keys for Derek and Nova's San Diego Townhouse. She also unfolded a letter, which read as follows:

**August 21, 2208**

**From: Cmdr. Nova Wildstar**

**To: Karl Forrester, Esq.**

**Subject: House Keya**

**Dad:**

**How are you and Mother? I hope Mother and my baby brother and sister are well; I worry about them in this world-wide heat wave!**

**Anyway, please find attached the keys to our place in San Diego. It is VERY important that Dawn Hardy receive these ASAP, as in within the next three or four days! A friend of mine who has some…issues….has been trying to evict her from her house, which she seized from her as payment on a debt. I've been trying to get this friend (who is married to that Loveable Loon Foxy) to calm down a bit and give Dawn some more slack. Dawn is alone with her baby because her husband Jefferson Hardy is deployed with us in our Business and we will be casting off soon for space on a secret mission I cannot discuss with you.**

**I also have enclosed an ID card for a small bearer bank account I've opened; just a few thousand, so that Dawn has something to help with the move and maybe something to live on. The PIN # for that account is enclosed. Dawn is free to use this as she wishes; I intend to recoup the money when Derek and I sell them the place in San Diego. She can also make use of the stuff and furniture we left in the house for herself and the baby.**

**I wish them the best of luck. Remember, it is important that Dawn get these quickly. My friend has started eviction proceedings against Dawn, and she has a nasty creep named Samuelson working for her, so….please hurry with these!**

**Love,**

**Nova.**

Dawn screamed after she read the note. "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?" she yelled as she began to hit Karl.

"Please…don't do that," said Karl Forrester.

"I have every right!" screamed Dawn. "Let's go to…to…the house!"

Lynn helped Dawn walk along as she carried David, wrapping a beach towel around the two of them as they walked down the path.

* * *

On Gamilon, a few hours later, a meeting was taking place in Desslok's Palace.

"So vhy haf ve been invited here?" Katrina snapped as she stood in a nice long black dress in the personal apartments of Desslok of Gamilon and Lady Astrena. Katrina's ensemble was all black; black dress, black choker, black sandals...save for a stunning White Orchid pinned to one nearly bare shoulder (actually pinned to the spaghetti strap of her dress).

"It is simple. I wanted to have a sort of ladies' night here, none of your men, while Desslok is out with the Fleet continuing to look for that slimebucket Zoltar's ship," said Astrena as she looked over her guests, all female; namely, herself, in black, with her red headdress and black sandals, Aliscea, in dark blue, also with black sandals, with a pale rose on her shoulder, Diane Sandor, in dark red and barefoot, Sasha, in a white Iscandarian gown, also wearing a White Orchid, and also barefoot, and, finally, Nova, in a white spaghetti-strap gown sort of like Katrina's. She also wore a White Orchid on one shoulder, and white sandals.

"Yeah, I can't stand how he got away from us," said Diane as she sloshed around some wine in a goblet before drinking.

"I wonder how come we couldn't have our men here," Nova said. "I mean, Derek and I are joined at the hip and..."

"If you start pining for Derek, I'm gonna scream," Aliscea said. "Paul's busy on the _Arizona_, and I don't mind..."

"You keep in touch with him through that bond," Nova said. "In fact, all of you except Katrina, Diane and I have paranormal bonds with your spouses of some kind or another."

"I do not vant to say vat kind of bond you hav wid Derek," teased Katrina. "But Diane has confessed to me vat you were doing about a quarter of the time on that island near ze equator vid him."

"I was not!" Nova said, blushing.

"Liar, liar pants on fire," said Diane. "What do you think Steve and I were up to?"

"Looking for food?" Nova said.

Diane threw her head back and laughed. "Yeah, like you and Derek were looking for edible plants when we were down to rags in that humidity and you came back with your rags not even covering anything while we still had on rags, that is..."

"What's this about rags?" asked Sasha.

Nova blushing and refused to talk, so Diane said, "Easy. The temperature and humidity on the island we were chasing Zoltar on was really bad. So bad that our clothes got wet as hell in the swamps and started to rip bit by bit. By the time day three came around of chasing Zoltar, we were in rags; me, Steve, Nova and Derek. By day two, the rags weren't really covering anything, and they started falling off. By day three, we just gave up and continued the hunt for him in just helmets, guns, and gloves...and other than that, we were naked. We went like that together for a day until we got to a Gamilon Base. After they stopped laughing at us, they gave us all blue Garuman Space Troopers' armor to wear, which also had on air conditioning systems and kept us cool at last. When we caught up to Zoltar, he had on nothing to wear but a bit of his cape, one boot, and his stupid mask."

"Then he got away...faded out...boom," Nova said. "Right when Derek and Steve were about to smash him in the face, and right when I pulled this off him," Nova said as she opened her largish bag and pulled out Zoltar's mask. "I didn't get to see much except that I know his hair is long and blond. Anyone want to look at it? It's sort of smelly."

"Yuk," said Aliscea as she looked it over. Astrena smiled and then she came back out with an ornate dark red book, held closed with a strap with an ornate sort of lock on it. "There are only two people in the Universe who can open this book. Me, and someone that I believe is sitting here right now."

"I know she's here, and she makes me want to gag, Mooother.." said Aliscea as she got up with a huff.

"That's _very _rude!" snapped Astrena. "Apologize!"

"I'm sorry I'm being rude, whoever the magical little freak is, " said Aliscea.

"Magical?" said Diane.

"The only person who can open this book has a hidden power and destiny that none of us know of," said Astrena.

"Is this a Ouija game?" Nova said. "Sounds silly," she said as she sipped at her juice. She had not taken wine because she was still nursing Alex and Ariel, who had been brought back over from Iscandar along with Sasha and Deke.

"There are days when you make me want to throw up," said Aliscea.

"And you used to be so _nice_ to me! What's your _problem_?" Nova said.

"She's jealous about something," said Astrena. "Pardon her."

"Give me stupid book," said Katrina as she grabbed it. "Where do I put my hand?"

"There," said Astrena. "But, Katrina, it's psychically locked...it..."

Katrina touched the lock. A jewel near the lock glowed blue, then pink, and then flashed bright white for a moment, but the lock stayed closed fast. "Stupid thing," said Katrina, who gave the book to Nova.

Nova tried it, feeling drawn to the book for some reason. The jewel glowed a soft pink for her, and it gradually went a bright pink, but it also remained locked. "I'm not the lucky girl," Nova shrugged. "Sasha, you try it."

Sasha shut her eyes and said, "I'm a Princess, it'll work for me." The jewel began to glow blue, and the blue glowed very bright, but it faded and the lock did not open. She gave it to Aliscea and said, "Try it."

Aliscea huffed and put her finger on the lock. For her, the jewel glowed orange, then a deeper orange, and then bright gold. She actually felt the lock beginning to work as the current bearer of the Matrix (although it was blighted within her) but, nothing happened. "Dead, like the last time I bloody tried," she said as she gave the book to Diane.

Diane took it, muttering, "This is SO stupid," as she began to put her finger on the little gold pad, the jewel glowed red. The red turned very bright, and then went dark. "All of us. Zilch," said Diane as she gave the book back to Astrena.

Astrena sighed. _It may not be the right time or place...or..._ Then, she said, "Enough of this. Nova, please take the book back in the other room. You can have a nice look at it before you put it back on the shelf."

"Okay," Nova said quietly. She took the book, and quietly went into the other room as Aliscea began to tell a dirty joke.

Nova sighed, and she put the book on a table. "Beautiful," she said quietly as she caressed the cover, drawn to the Pellian script in gold on the cover.

Nova caressed the lock-pad with her fingers, and the universe seemed to grow very quiet.

The jewel began to glow again, but the pink was deeper. In fact, the pink turned into a deep red color; deeper than it had been when Diane had touched it. It was a deep scarlet, the color of blood.

A thought came to Nova's mind, as if from outside. _Do you accept the possibility that you will give your life in defense of all you hold dear?_

_I do that every time I board the __Argo__, _Nova thought in response.

_Would you give your life even to defend someone who scorns you? _came another thought.

_I would,_ Nova thought without hesitation.

_Then, this is your Destiny,_ came another thought. All of the time, Nova's finger had been on the lock.

The jewel glowed a blindingly bright red, and then, it glowed an unearthly white. _Welcome to your Destiny, welcome to the purpose behind your very birth... _the thought came again.

And, at that, the lock opened for Nova with a muted click.

Nova opened the book and began looking through it, unable to read most of it, but fascinated nonetheless.

Aliscea stood at the door, looking at Nova as she read the book. _DAMN YOU!_ she thought. _How do you get the Destiny that I should have had? Damn you to hell!_

Aliscea ran off before Nova could ask her anything; Nova just saw her taking off with a look of rage on her face.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done this," Nova said quietly. She closed the book, locked it, and put it back on the shelf...

...as, far, far away, the Dark Lord Ekogaru beheld the scene, stood paralyzed, and he screamed, thinking, _BY THE DAMNED COSMOS! IT IS HER! IT WAS HER ALL ALONG! THE SUM OF MY WORST FEARS! BECAUSE IF SHE COMES THROUGH THE FIRE INTACT...It is my end...my end..._

Unaware of what had happened, or what any of this meant, Nova quietly came back into the room. Astrena looked at her hard and asked, "Did you put it back?"

Nova nodded. "I guess you can tell me what that book is some other day?"

Astrena saw Aliscea run away, enraged and crying, and she said, "Yes, dear. I will explain what that is to you some other day." Astrena looked in Nova's eyes and she knew what had happened and what Nova had agreed to.

_You poor, sweet thing,_ thought Astrena. _You have no inkling of what you will have to go through before you come into your inheritance as the Successor. But I am somehow glad that you humbly accepted it. That you did what my own daughter could not do...which is...give of yourself...and HE does not realize it...or maybe he does...your kindness and openness has just signed his death warrant, although it will take years for his end to play out...and years for you to fully accept...your mantle and authority..._

Nova just smiled and she took some more juice. She told no one about what had transpired in that room for many years...not even Derek.

* * *

**X. BIRTHDAY!**

**Planet Iscandar**

**Taniquetel Beach**

**Tuesday, September 6, 2208**

**1100 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

* * *

A few days later, on Iscandar, at Sasha and Deke's place at Taniquetel Beach, Derek called out. "Sasha! Where are you? Sasha? Deke's looking for you…."

Nova also called for Sasha….and so did little Ariel….until Sasha herself called out, "I'm up here…"

Derek, Nova, the toddlers, Jonathan, Deke, Sandor, and Diane thus found Sasha.

Sasha was sitting on a rock, under a palm tree. She had on white sandals, a red flower in her hair, and she wore a white warm-up coat.

Other than that, she was nude….and Deke thought she looked absolutely _adorable_ as she sat there with wide eyes with her charms bare in the warm summer heat of the Iscandarian island.

By the muffled "awwwww", so did just about everyone else.

"You look nice and cool, Sasha," Nova said.

"I'm…I'm sorry…I'm sorry, Deke….I didn't think they'd all show up at once…I'm sorry, Uncle…I'm sorry, Auntie…"

"Princess Sasha, this is your realm," Derek said. "If you want to go naked, it's all right." He smiled at Nova, thinking of the pleasant memory of their stay with Desslok in the Palace, where they had gone naked in the Imperial Apartments that evening.

"Sasha pretty," said little Alex as he ran up to her and gave her a hug.

"Awww...thank you,dear," said Sasha as she kissed her cousin.

"Mommy...undress?" said little Alex, stomping from side to side to shake the beach sand out of his sandals.

"It depends upon your Mommy, Alexander," Sasha said. "Auntie Nova?"

"He'd probably be happier out of his things, " Nova giggled.

"Alex," said Sasha. "Mommy says I can undress you for the beach. How much do you want off?" "Everything!" he screamed.

The group laughed as Sasha hugged little Alex and began by unbuttoning his Hawaiian shirt. He squirmed a bit as Sasha and Nova continued with the undressing, stopping only when little Alex was completely in his birthday suit, which was somehow fitting because today was Alex's birthday! In the meantime, Ariel just pulled off her sundress by herself and sat on a rock in only her training pants. She made her mother sit down and she said, "_Undress Mommy_!" in a very imperious voice. Then, Nova laughed as her daughter began to unbutton her crocheted sundress and kept on going until her breasts came out, followed by her youthful womanhood as Ariel kissed her mother and actually pulled her dress off of her and then hugged her mother while everyone laughed. Then, Ariel pulled her mother's flip-flops off and began to tickle her feet as Nova, as soon as she was also naked, picked up Alex and began to nurse him.

Until he began to cry.

"Gotta go!" he said.

"Okay," said Nova (as she sat there with a little milk running down her nude breast). "We can take you off in the bushes?"" .

"NO!" yelled Alex as he lay back against his mother and began to cry louder.

"Okay, dear," Nova said as she got a hand under his bare bottom as he cried. Nova smiled and wiggled her toes up slightly as she said, "Alex, let go now. We're in the grass. C'mon…let the wee come right up out of your bare pee-pee…"

Then, while crying, Alex then let go in the grass with a loud hiss while his father took a picture of him and his smiling, naked mother…while little Alex was peeing.

That picture would be seen by the whole world in a few months, since it would be the cover picture for Nova's upcoming book on Pregnancy and Child Care, which would be called _The Naked Madonna: An Unvarnished Look at Pregnancy and Child Care. _

Then, when he was done, he looked down at his penis, shook it, and then put his hands clumsily over it (again, it stuck out over his fingers) as he said, "Mommy and daddy not CUT it!"

"Oh, he's on _that_ again?" sighed Derek.

"Yeah," laughed Nova.

Finally, Ariel squirmed and yelled, "Gotta pee!" as Nova got her out of her training pants and let her take off to find a private place in the sand to go. Nova's nakedness drew some more "awwwws" from Sandor, Diane, and Deke as Derek sat down beside his young wife and kissed her. Nova partly crawled into his lap and kissed him back, smiling as Ariel ran back up at high speed as she ran back up to her mother, kissed her, and climbed up into her lap, caressing her mother as Derek and Nova caressed her while Ariel found her mother's breast and began to nurse. Derek found a camera in the grass and photographed Nova with Ariel. Then, he whispered to Nova, "Do you think we need some more shots of you and Sasha for your book?"

"I do," Nova said. She looked at Sasha. "Sasha, dear, if you're comfortable as you are, you don't need to put anything else on. In fact, I'm going to want to swim later on, so I'll probably just go naked until after lunch…if no one minds…"

"Who minds? Nova, I'm joining you and Sasha," Diane asked with a laugh. Sandor looked at her with some bemusement since she was in the middle of stripping off her bikini bottoms.

"Yes, Auntie?" Sasha said.

"All I'm going to ask is…Derek would like some more pictures of us feeding and playing with the babies for my child care book. Later on, when you get Star, would you mind taking _everything_ off for when we pose?" Nova asked. "We both think that you'd look better with Star with absolutely nothing on, like I am right now…"

"How's this, you two?" asked Diane, who (as Sandor rolled up his eyes a little) had joined Sasha and Nova in the nude. She waded into a lagoon, and Steve borrowed Derek's camera to take some pictures of her naked in the water.

Like Nova and Sasha, she looked good out of her clothes.

* * *

Later on, in a bikini top and an old pair of cutoff shorts, Nova held Ariel (who was again wearing her sailor top and skirt in pink, which were clean) and Derek held Alex, clad in his sailor outfit in white, navy blue, and purple. Derek wore a polo short, shorts, and went barefoot like Nova and the kids. Jonathan was also there, bare-chested in black swim trunks.

Alex and Ariel had "Happy Birthday" sung for them as they looked bemused at the single candles on their birthday cakes. Then, they blew out the candles as everyone applauded.

A little later on, Nova and Derek sat on the beach with Katrina as the kids slept.

Derek said, "Katrina, I'm glad that we finally got in touch with Dawn Hardy. We're both upset at you."

"Vhy?" said Katrina, who wore a black one-piece swimsuit. "Since I had to evict zat brainless idiot? She broke every rule I made."

Nova sighed. "Katrina, it's not so much the fact you had to evict her as in the _nasty_ manner in which you had to do it!"

"Vat you mean?" said Katrina. "I mean, I gave our Rental Agent Samuelson orders that they were not to be evicted until after a week passed from August 31st! They were supposed to get orders to move out today, but…"

"Katrina," Derek said, angrily. "Your damn agent pushed Dawn and her child out of the place…while they taking a bath….with armed force on the 31st!"

"VAT?" said Katrina. "I GAVE THAT IDIOT ORDERS!"

"And now, Dawn might just be suing _you_," Nova said as she tapped an angry finger into Katrina's chest. "It is beyond reprehensible that you had those men dispossess them and send them out of the house naked!"

"I…I…I…can't believe zat happened!" said Katrina. "Vere are zere things?"

Jefferson Hardy, in black and gold swimwear (A Speedo in black with a gold arrow on it), showed up and glared at Katrina. "Our things are still in a warehouse, Katrina. And, at the rate that things went, heah, I don't hold with hittin' women…but, for every rule, ya bitch, there is an exception…you…"

And before Derek and Nova could stop him, Hardy pulled Katrina up and punched her in the mouth. She fell back with blood running from her mouth.

"You…rotten…scummy, disgusting…rat…" yelled Katrina as she slapped at Hardy as Nova pulled her back. "I have diplomatic immunity from the Pellian Government! You are going to pay for zat, Earthling _idiot_!" Katrina screamed, "You…"

"GIVE US BACK OUR THINGS!" yelled Jefferson.

"Pay me twenty-five thousand and I will!" said Katrina.

"Give them back now and maybe ah'll letcha keep yoah Goddamn teeth!" snapped Hardy. "No one hurts mah kin like the way _you_ did!"

Derek pulled back Hardy by his shoulders while Nova dragged Katrina back. Derek then said, "Nova, pay Katrina the bill….she can pay us back later on."

"Katrina, if I pay you, will you give them their things back?" Nova said. "And you have no control over their living arrangements now…they live in a house in San Diego that _we_ are selling them!"

Katrina said, "Yes, I'll pay them…"

Derek said to Hardy. "Jeff, would you leave this to the lawyers? Nova's father has already filed suit against Katrina, Foxy, and Samuelson for everything that has happened…and…I'm sure there is going to be a LOT of money changing hands to settle this one!"

"Let Samuelson pay most of ze charges himself!" yelled Katrina. "I am telling Foxy he is fired as of today! He did not obey my orders!"

"Let's see if those ohduhs were real when we see yuh in COURT, ya black-hearted _snake_!" said Hardy.

"Let's leave this for Court!" said Derek. "We still have to get home! You two shake hands and leave it to the lawyers…."

Derek let Jeff go and Hardy took a step towards his enemy Katrina. Nova likewise let Katrina go, and Katrina came towards Jeff. They shook hands stiffly and turned away from each other.

With that done, Derek and Nova turned to greet Alex and Ariel when they ran up on the beach to greet them in their birthday suits.

Which was appropriate…since it was still their birthday.

* * *

**XI. WRAPPING IT ALL UP...**

**Planet Earth**

**The Tokyo Megalopolis**

**Earth Defense Headquarters**

**Monday, September 12, 2208**

**0900 Hours: Earth Space-Time**

* * *

Commodore Derek Wildstar who was standing behind a lectern was standing next to Commanding General Singleton in Earth Defense Headquarters for a Press Conference. The _Argo_ had just arrived home the previous day, and she was under repair yet again.

Not far away, Nova was sitting in the background at a table to Derek's right with Alex and Ariel (who were nice and quiet for once, entranced with the video cameras and studio lights) and with Jonathan, who was in his JSCC uniform with another young person from his unit, Jack Bellingham, and their unit commander from their school, a young Lieutenant known as Toshio Matsue. Finally, at the far end of the table sat Doctor James Anderson.

At a table to their left sat three odd couples; none of whom looked at each other much, namely, Stephen Sandor and Diane Henson-Sandor, Foxy and Katrina Foxworth-Savela, and, last of all, Jefferson Hardy, who sat there uneasily with Dawn and little David. Dawn had on a new yellow sundress and sandals, and David wore a cute new outfit picked out for him by his mother and Lynn. Of the people at the tables, only Nova, Anderson, Stephen Sandor, and Katrina had microphones on their tables. Katrina wore a black suit, sandals, and a wrathful expression, while Foxy wore a pinstriped black suit and Fedora that made him look like a Gangster.

A reporter from _Asahi Shimbun_ asked Commodore Wildstar, "Commodore, you gave us a brief description of the pursuit of Ibn Zoltar to Planet Gamilon. Was he captured there?"

Derek held up his mask with disgust. "We almost had him; but…at the last moment, he escaped from us."

A reporter from _Time_ asked, "Commodore, does this mean that the Star Force's famed edge is waning? This is the very first time that you have ever pursued a foe and have been defeated!"

"I wouldn't call what we did out at Gamilon a _defeat_," sighed Derek, who looked back at Nova and nodded sadly. "It's more like an incomplete victory. We were able to destroy three heavy Spectran vessels…"

"Is it true, Commanding General Singleton, that the Spectran Empire has declared war on Earth?" asked a reporter for MSNBC.

The Commander looked at Derek, who shut his eyes when he thought of the last, bizarre message that the _Argo_ had picked up on its way home from the Sanzar System. He said, "It is true," as the room began to buzz. "However, we were told in the message that this war will be an unconventional conflict unlike anything that Earth has seen beforehand."

"Is our alliance with Gamilon, Iscandar and Pellias still effective?" snapped a reporter from NHK.

"It is," said Katrina for the first time on Earth's public media as she nodded. "I am Katrina Foxworth-Savela, Special Envoy for Pellias. As a representative from Pellias who was integral to the pursuit, I can say that Pellias played a part in this pursuit and battle, and that, as much as I _personally _hate to admit it…so did Gamilon. The Alliance stands, ladies and gentlemen." She swallowed hard as she said, "We owe a great debt to Leader Desslok for his role in this pursuit. And I am told he is still in space on his flagship, pursuing the enemy, and the search for Zoltar continues."

"What did the message from Zoltar say?" asked a reporter from the _Times _of London.

The Commander said, "Commodore Wildstar will read the message."

Derek gritted his teeth and began to read: "_This is a diplomatic communiqué' from the Government of the Spectran Empire to the Federal Government of Earth. You were given a chance to establish relations with us peacefully, on our terms. However, your first contacts with our military led to unwarranted attacks from you; attacks that demanded We use unconventional warfare as a response. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Insects. The Glory of the Sacred Insect._ (as Wildstar read that line, a strange look of WTF (?) went across his face) _You will all be like the lowest form of life under our boot. We cannot strike now! You have me on the Run like a Crawling Slime. However, look to your Children Next Week, for I may Return and Eat Them. Am I mad? Yes. You have driven me mad. I was born in Latvia in a Test Tube. I Love Rock and Roll, and the Screams of the Dying. Rats! Slime! Dirt! I spit upon you and as I have been informed that the Great Spirit has taken our Chairman Argha Ibn Malnax, I, Malnax Ibn Zoltar, forever and henceforth known to you as Zoltar, world without end, Amen, and so forth….I, Zoltar, declare war upon your slimy world and all of your allies as the new High Priest of the Great Spirit, High Prince, and First Chairman of Spectra. It is a Battle of the Planets that will end only when one of us is subjugated. Ha ha ha ha ha. Count your days, they are numbered, et cetera and so forth. Have a Nice Day._"

"Are you saying that Zoltar is insane?" asked a reporter from the Espana network in Spain.

"Well, I don't think that sounds terribly sane," Derek said. "Do you?"

"What are you doing about this menace?" said the reporter.

"We are doing three things;" Derek said. "The Star Force is receiving new, counter-insurgency training. The _Argo_ is being repaired, but her crew is being kept on standby pending a sudden call to action. The _Arizona_ remains on patrol under Captain Mark Venture's command until the _Argo_ is to be ready to return to action, as soon as possible."

Commanding General Singleton also said, "I wish to assure you that the Earth Defense Forces also are on a higher state of alert until such time as when Zoltar is found and dealt with." Singleton then nodded to Doctor Anderson.

Anderson said, "I am Doctor James Anderson, newly appointed as Chief of an organization known as the Intergalactic Science Organization. I will be working with all of the resources of Earth and our allies to help the Star Force, the rest of the EDF, and our allies to develop new defenses against the Spectrans and our other enemies who may be driven to use bizarre, unconventional means, such as the R'Khells and what remains of the Josiahite Cult organization."

"What sort of defenses will they be?" said the reporter from MSNBC.

"We aren't at liberty to say at this time," said Anderson.

Commander Sandor added, "Be assured, Earth's technology and science will be deployed in the greatest possible manner to stop this threat. We in the Star Force will continue to fight this threat, along with the R'Khells and the hostile Bolar Federation. However, in the years ahead, you may see…special warriors deployed to aid us."

"Call them a new team of Scientific Ninja," said Anderson enigmatically, giving no one there any damn idea what he was talking about. "I am interviewing some possible candidates for special training now. I can say no more at the moment…"

The reporter from NHK asked, "What does this mean for the Star Force?"

"It means we fight on," said Diane Henson-Sandor. "However, bear in mind, someday, Zoltar _will_ have a reckoning…"

The reporter from the Times saw Nova playing with Alex and asked, "Commander Wildstar, we heard something of your role in this defense of Earth described when the Commanding General awarded you, Commander Sandor, Lieutenant Commander Henson-Sandor, and Lieutenant Commander Katrina Foxworth-Savela the Victoria Cross for your bravery in pursuing Zoltar. Since you have your young children, what are your future plans?"

Nova, pretty in a summery green dress, held little Alex's hand and said, "I have reverted to Reserve Status because I am entering Medical School. I will be attending my first class this afternoon. However, be assured that Derek and I are looking at hiring some domestic help to help us with the children in case we are ever deployed again. I would like to learn how to be a Doctor, but I await the call of my planet if I ever have to put down my textbook and scalpel and pick up my helmet and Astro-Automatic again." Nova smiled with Alex as he, in his little brown suit jacket, shirt, tie, and black shorts, put up his sandaled foot to have his toes played with. "And, be assured, our children understand this…"

Alex looked at the crowd, crossed his eyes, and burped into the microphone, breaking everyone up as Nova murmured, "Oh, Alexander!"

"GOOGLEPLEX!" gurgled Ariel.

* * *

An hour later, Nova was again keeping Alex and Ariel quiet in a wood-paneled conference room of her father's law firm as she watched lawyers for Foxy and Katrina shaking hands with her father and signing papers, ending the legal dispute between the Hardys and the Foxworth-Savelas. Foxy nodded grimly and handed over a large check, and then turned to Hiram Samuelson and said, "Your services for my firms are no longer needed, Mister Samuelson. You'll leave now."

Samuelson left with his head down as Jeff and Dawn Hardy glared at them. A silent Katrina turned away from them and murmured to Nova, "We'll see you at a later point, Nova…Derek…"

"Likewise," said Derek as he shook hands with Katrina and Foxy, and Katrina squeezed Nova's hands. "Thank you for helping me to see reason," she whispered. "Thank Arishna they are out of our lives."

"And thank God _yoah_ out of our lives!" snapped Jefferson as he overheard them.

"I gave you back your things and paid you lot of money after Foxy and our other counsel convinced us a court would probably find for you," snapped Katrina. "Let it end there, and we do not speak again, for ve are enemies!"

"Damn _right_ you're my enemy," said Dawn with tears in her eyes. This would be a significant issue between them years later. Dawn and Jeff turned away from them. They would not exchange any words again for several years.

Katrina and Foxy left with their lawyers. Dawn and Jeff then signed some papers with their bank, cancelling a mortgage application they had had active until this morning. Then, the large check that Katrina and Foxy had given them was signed over by them to Derek and Nova, who accepted the check as payment in full for their townhouse in San Diego. A representative from their bank looked at the check, nodded, and accepted it to pay off their mortgage on the house in San Diego.

Derek and Nova then signed some papers, and Jeff and Dawn signed them with happy tears in their eyes as the deed to the townhouse in San Diego then passed to them, along with a check from the Wildstars to pay the Association Fees there for the next five years as they became homeowners of a condo at the Rio Amarillo Complex; the new home that they had almost practically already moved into.

The closing done, Nova looked at her watch and said, "Oh! Derek! I'm late! You take Jonathan home; I've got the babies," she said. "I have to run to class!"

Nova and Derek kissed, and he said to her, "See you later."

"Likewise, darling," Nova said as she took off with her book bag and the toddlers, with Ariel looking adorable in her pink dress and matching pink sandals.

* * *

**AN HOUR LATER…..**

"Now, what is the first principle in looking at the physiology of the first five of the seven cervical vertebrae?" said Doctor M'ben Kitara in his sonorous African accent as he stood in a lecture hall, pointing at a human skeleton that hung before a blackboard. He wiped his dark-skinned, mahogany-colored face with a handkerchief and said, "You in the back! You will stand and deliver! Anderson?"

"Consider the physical strength and stressors of the structure of those bones?" said Doctor James Anderson as he sat in the back of the lecture hall, taking notes.

The doors of the lecture hall opened, and a young woman in a summery green off-the shoulder dress and lime-green sandals came in carrying a huge bag…that had in it books, a laptop…

….and two cute little moppets who were trying to keep quiet.

The young woman sat down near Anderson, smiled quickly, and lifted her children out of the bag and got them to sit together in two vacant seats near the corner. She quietly opened up her laptop and opened a Medical textbook as Kitara noticed her and said, "Commander Wildstar. You are a nurse, if I recall correctly."

"I am," Nova said.

"I have received the letters about you, because otherwise, I would have dropped you from my class with a failing mark after you were away for so long. You still have a makeup first module quiz on the first fifty pages of the Physiology I assignment that you will sit with me this afternoon after classes end."

"I understand, sir," Nova said as she put on her new reading glasses. It was a good thing she had brought them; it was dim up here in the back row of the main lecture hall of Central Hospital Medical School.

"Then, Wildstar. What do you have to say on the physiology of the cervical vertebrae?"

Nova looked at her book, whispered at a shivering Ariel, "Yes, honey, I know it's a skeleton up there…sorry I could not drop you off at Day Care because they have our registration bollixed up," and Nova then said, "Doctor Kitara, In humans, and almost all other mammals, there are seven cervical vertebrae, which are labeled C1 to C7. Anatomists divide them into two regions: the upper cervical region (C1 and C2), and the lower cervical region (C3 through C7). Three cervical vertebrae have a unique anatomical structure and have been given special names. C1 is called the atlas, C2 the axis, and C7 the vertebra prominens."

Nova then paused and said, "Only the cervical vertebrae have three openings or foramina – the vertebral foramina and two transverse foramina. A characteristic feature of the vertebrae C2 to C6 is a projection known as the bifid spinous process. C7 has a prominent nonbifid spinous process that can be felt at the base of the neck."

"Show me on the back of your neck where that is," snapped Kitara.

Nova turned around and lifted her hair up, glad that she had on a dress that left her shoulders and upper body exposed. "Right here, Doctor. I've felt that process in a thousand patients."

"Thank you," said Kitara. "This is going to be an…interesting Academic Year with you present. Congratulations on your successful return from Gamilon. Now, that Mrs. Wildstar has explained the cervical vertebrae so well…who cares to expound upon her basic exposition?"

* * *

On Spectra, Zoltar, who was healing up from his wounds, smiled as he threw up his arms and was presented to the Community as the new Ruler. Thousands of green-clad troops threw up their arms in salute, as he snapped, into a microphone, "We have lost many men and ships to the cursed Alliance of Earth, Iscandar, Pellias, and Gamilon! We maintain relations, so-called, with Gamilon, but only so long as it is convenient! We must pull back for now, but there will come a day when our war with Earth, especially, shall begin…in _earnest_!"

His troops cheered at that.

* * *

On Earth, a few hours afterwards, Doctor Anderson was heading to an orphanage on the outskirts of the Tokyo Megalopolis to interview a little boy who had been there for maybe a week.

His name: Mark Kenshiro Washio. His age: three and a half.

Doctor Anderson sat with Mark and said, "Hello there, Mark. You do remember me?"

He nodded. Then, he said, "Why did my Mommy have to die?"

"You do know she was very sick, Mark."

"Yes, I know that," he sniffed. "I don't like it here. My room is small…lots of my toys are put away….some of these other kids, they…"

_Precocious,_ thought Anderson. _Given his real heritage, it is to be expected…and given the circumstances of his conception…his birth…._

"You don't have to stay here," said Anderson softly. "I have a very large house. You can come live with me."

"_Really_?" said Mark.

"I'd like you to begin going to school. Training. You will have a very special mission ahead of you."

"Mission?" said Mark, suspicious as he kicked his sneakered feet.

_He is a smart one,_ thought Anderson, who was feeling a sudden pang of guilt with everything that had happened. For a moment…only a moment, he felt the desire to take Mark to another family's home, rather than his own…and….

_That would not work. He is already sworn to be what he is….he must already be...trained, to_…. Anderson thought.

Then, Anderson sighed and pinned a small pin onto Mark's shirt.

"What's this?" said Mark.

"Our secret. For now," Anderson said. "Come with me, and you will have a new code name…"

"Code name?" said Mark. "Cool! Is this spy stuff?"

"It's…Ninja stuff," whispered Anderson. "Long ago, many, many years ago, before you were born, before your mother and father were born, before the Gamilons came, there was a secret group of Ninjas. They fought a very evil man and his organization. They thought that the Evil Man died, since he was never seen again….some say he died. Some kind of machine or spaceship left the Earth a long time ago. Those Ninjas remained true to their mission, then they married, had children, grew old, and died like all men and women must die someday. Long ago, another orphaned boy was given this pin. And the name…."

"It looks like…a bird?" said Mark.

"It is. And your code name will be...The Eagle…"

"Cool!" said Mark. "When can we leave?"

"Now," said Anderson. "I'll have the Sisters get your things," he said as a nun passed their door and smiled. All of the arrangements had been made.

Mark's legal last name would change once he left the Sisters of Mercy Orphanage. It would change from Washio to Anderson.

**Although**, Anderson thought as he pondered the matter. _Your last name should really be neither Washio, nor Anderson….it should be…_

Then, pushing the thoughts, and the guilt and lies out of his mind, Anderson helped Mark into his car. He turned on the radio, and The Beatles' _Help!_ began to play on the radio. Anderson kept the song playing as they drove off.

They would have a lot to do at his villa, beginning today….

* * *

_**END.**_


End file.
